Antorus: the Burning Throne

It took a while, but Exorsus' World 2nd kill video is finally here and was worth waiting for!

And here's the top 20 image! Congratulations to all the guilds that put in the effort and ended Legion on a high note!

Four more kill have come in over the Christmas break, bringing us very close to a top 20! Ding Xin, Chao Jie and KeaHoarl  grab the Asia 5th-7th and Libertad the Eu 9th on Argus, finishing up Antorus in 15th-18 spots! Congrats to all.

We have an US/OC 2nd! Easy claim the World 12th and finish up Antorus as well.

Sco also released his tanking commentary video for the Argus WF:

And here's the Top 10 image, all fancy!

We now have 8 guilds who've managed to unmake the unmaker! JTH jitianhong (Stylewar) have gone ahead and grabbed World #8, Asian Second on this, the most likely final boss of the expansion!

The Unmaker is down for a 7th time as ScrubBusters get the EU 5th!

Argus goes down again! Another EU kill as Pieces down the final boss of Antorus and probably Legion World 6th, EU 4th! Congrats on the 11/11!

Memento have come out with their video of their World Third kill: 

Here's Alpha's World 4th, Asia first Argus kill video:

And here comes Limit's World 5th, Us/OC first Argus the Unmaker video as well!

Edit: Updated the image with Memento's guild logo. Apologies for not finding it before.

And here's the top 5, in fancy image form! We couldn't seem to find Memento's logo so we went with a Horde icon instead.

It's just not Argus' day it seems, as we have our 5th kill! We now have all three regions with Antorus cleared, as Limit grab the US/OC first and World 5th! 

More big news today as we have a World 4th! Alpha have come out ahead in the Asia race and grabbed the top spot, 11/11 and done with Antorus! Congrats!

And the Method Argus WF video is here!

We have ourselves a World Third, and it's from the Finns of Memento! 

Argus the Unmaker Mythic World 3rd by Memento

It seems the World third is taking a bit too long for Method's taste and so they'll be releasing their Argus the Unmaker World First video today! Just under an hour and a half from now you can watch the probably final boss of Legion get killed and the currently best guild in World of Warcraft claim yet another World First!

Finally some news on the upcoming World 3rd as Memento seem to be the closes to the kill, seeing as how they wiped on 0.3%, according to a screenshot. Limit might be as close to the kill as far as we know, but no specific info there, as the Asia guilds are a bit further behind with Alpha reached 10% and Style War are sub-20%, while Right are around 30%.

Aside from the bronze that's still hanging in the air, the third place finisher also ushers in Method's World First video, which will then probably speed up the following kills as their strategy is revealed. It shouldn't be long now!

And we have ourselves a World Second kill on Argus the Unmaker! Exorsus are the ones to take the #2 spot, and have yet again show just what a powerhouse they are. They've consistently shown themselves to be one of the best guilds in the world!

Argus the Unmaker Mythic World 2nd by Exorsus

So, with Legion presumably done with raids, it's a good time to take a look at how the endbosses compare. That's right, it's stats time, but don't forget the wipe count isn't always the best indicator, so we added actual kill times as well, although again we can never be sure just how much of that time each guild spent actually playing the encounter in question. The time to kill is also a tricky one due to the US/EU reset shenanigans so we added both times, adding 16 hours to the EU time to figure the time the boss was technically alive. Also we can't be sure/find exact info on whether some of the raids had extended maintenance for either the US or EU resets, so there might be a 1-2 hour time discrepancy on the overall time to kill.

Raid / Boss	WF Guild	Wipe Count	Time to kill (from region reset)	Time to kill (from previous boss)
The Emerald Nightmare Xavius	Exorsus	19	17h40min +16h from US launch	2h43min
Trial of Valor Helya	Method	223	2 days 7h +16h from US launch	2 days 1h
The Nighthold Gul'dan	Exorsus	247	11 days 6h +16h from US launch	4 days 22h
The Tomb of Sargeras Kil'jaeden	Method	654	19 days 5h +16h from US launch	11 days 19h
Antorus: the Burning Throne Argus the Unmaker	Method	320	7 days 8h +16h from US launch	6 days 14h

And the nerdscreams for Method's Mythic Argus the Unmaker World First:

And here's the kill roster, with a bunch of additional info, courtesy of Raider.io:

In all the Argus WF commotion we missed Exorsus posting their World 2nd Aggramar video:

We've also found out that there weren't many hotfixes done during the Argus encounter, as @Justw8 shares there were only a few mior bug fixes and these:

December 8:

• Increased Berserk to 11:00 from 10:30
• Increased the check on Sargeras Rage debuffs from 0.5s to 0.75s

December 11:

• The boss will heal up to 60% after the transition, instead of 66%.
• Motes of Titanic Power will persist slightly longer, which should help a bit with the Titanforging mechanic.

And so the Antorus: the Burning Throne No.1 is crowned, and just as the first 10 bosses died on the first EU day of the first reset, so did Argus on the second. It took 320 wipes for Method to down the probably final boss of Legion, compared to Kil'jadeden's 654.

And we have a kill! METHOD TAKE WORLD FIRST ARGUS!

The EU reset has arrived, which means, barring some magic from the four Asia guilds that are still progressing on Argus, that the final boss of Antorus and probably Legion will at the very least be a two-reset one! Given the extra amount of time Method had on Argus over the Asia guilds it seems almost certain that the Unmaker will indeed make it to week 2, so now all that remains to be seen is if the influx of more mythic gear from the re-clear will be enough to nudge the world soul into its grave.

With the new reset we have some hotfixes to fix some tactics that Blizzard didn't intend to be used.

[WITH SERVER RESTARTS IN EACH REGION] Varimathras' health lowered by 10% in Mythic difficulty.
[WITH SERVER RESTARTS IN EACH REGION] Necrotic Embrace will no longer miss players who are under the effects of Aspect of the Turtle or Cloak of Shadows.

The most used strat for him was to bring a ton of hunters and rogues to mostly nullify that entire mechanic, which is why it died so very quickly for most guild who reach him. This change is a lot like the change we saw Mistress get last tier, where blood DK soaks were nerfed, so let's see if this nerf is equally big, or if the top guilds can get back to Argus as fast as they've done this week.

While the top guilds are keeping what changes have happened on Argus the Unmaker since they got to him to themselves to preserve any potential advantage, we did get some info on a recent change to the Mythic phase from @CoBeTDH, one of our sources for Asia progress. It seems that the health reset at the start of the Mythic phase, that went from 40% to 66% has been reduced to 60%, which makes it a full 6% less health to deal with.

Limit have also released their World 3rd Aggramar kill video:

Here's Method's World First Aggramar kill video, which will also be coming to youtube tomorow!

In case you didn't alreday find it, you can check out Style War's live progress on Argus the Unmaker here:

We have yet another Aggramar kill as the US/OC second show themselves! Easy claim the World 9th kill on the penultimate Antorus boss and move on to Argus. 10/11.

The Chinese WoW scene is looking real good this tier, as yet another guild have gotten past the big bady Aggramar. Alpha is the next in line, getting 10/11 as World 7th, Asian 2nd!

The top5 for Aggramar have been finalized. Stylewar have killed him as Asian #1, World #5, and now sit at 10/11!

You can get some first looks on Argus Mythic over at https://www.douyu.com/t/rswz?roomIndex=0, as Stylewar are streaming all of their progress!

Aggramar is dead once more! The Finns in Memento becomes the fourth guild in the world to get passed the penultimate boss, and now sit together in the very exclusive bunch of guilds who are 10/11 and are able to progress on the last boss of the expansion!

Limit doesn't seem to have any sort of limit to their potential! With guilds starting to catch up they went ahead and got themselves Aggramar World Third, and now sit at 10/11, and get to be the first non-European guild to get access to the final boss of the expansion!

It seems US kills come close together every time, as Big Dumb Guild have just downed Coven of Shivarra World 8th, US/OC third! 9/11 and on to Aggramar, who still remains defeated only by Method and Exorsus.

We also have another 9/11 as ScrubBusters down Coven of Shivarra World 6th, EU 3rd!

With 5 kills done we now have Limit's World First Coven of Shivarra kill!

A bunch of guilds have killed Varimathras, with ScrubBusters, Bleached Bones, Pieces, Memento, Nova and Wait for It claim the World 8th through 13th, EU third through 8th, all now on 8/11.

A while ago Alpha made the jump to 9/11 and got the Coven of Shivarra down World 4th Asia first, and Style War quickly followed them and grabbed the World 5th!

The general un-official rule in Europe and the Americas is that cutting edge progress does not get streamed, but over in China that's not quite the same. If you want to watch some of the best guilds out of the Asian regions progress, you can do so over at https://www.douyu.com/directory/game/WOW, or any of the other China based streaming sites.

For example you can watch Stylewar do their Coven of Shivarra progress at https://www.douyu.com/t/rswz?roomIndex=0!

Stylewar won't let Alpha get any sort of lead over in Asia, and decided it was time to kill Varimathras as well, Asian #2, World #7!

Alpha have taken the #1 spot over in Asia, as they've just killed Varimathras! This puts them up at Asia #1, and World #6

The race is back on! Exorsus have managed to get past Aggramar, claiming World Second in the process!

We've got ourselves an Asian kill on Kin'garoth, with Stylewar getting the kill! They now sit at 7/11, Asian #1 and World #9!
Over here in Europe we've also had a kill of the same boss, with Bleached Bones killing him as well, earning themselves EU #4 and World #10!

Always keep in mind when it comes to the Chinese guilds that it's hard to get exact kill times, so we'll have to see exactly what rank they end up with.

And here's Limit, right on time with their video as 5 guilds have downed Varimathras!

Two more kills today, as Varimathras falls twice within 5 minutes. Big Dumb Guild get him just ahead of Easy for World 4th and 5th, both on 8/11.

More Asia updates courtesy of @andyice_77 and @CoBeTDH: Skyline claim the 6/11 Asia first on Imonar, as well as the Asia 2nd on Eonar, followed by KeaHoarl and Style War.

Another Asia server update, it seems Stars Gaming haven't actually gone into Antorus yet and ShadowSoul got the first 5 Asia firsts!

It's Wednesday night/morning here in the EU, which means the Asia servers have come up and the guilds have been in Antorus for a while now. We have a number of guilds reaching 4/11 already, with Alpha, Style War, KeaHoarl and a new top guild called Skyline having downed up to and including Portal Keeper Hasabel. Their armory API isn't working at the moment, so we can't really tell who got the Asia firsts or what order the guilds killed the bosses in, but we'll get to work and try to figure it out as soon as possible.

Aggramar is down! Method claim the World Fist and there's only one boss left in Antorus! 10/11!

And we have two more Limit World Firsts, Imonar and Eonar:

More Limit videos are coming in so let's take a look!

We have two World First videos that have come up, with Big Dumb Guild's Garotihi Worldbreaker and Limit's Kin'garoth!

Exorsus once again is level with Method, and now sit at 9/11 and the World #3 spot after having gotten past Coven! Let's hope that the last two bosses survive for a while, so that we can get an exciting progress tier.

Method have once again taken the top EU spot, taking down Coven of Shivarra World Second!

This race is really starting to shape up to be something special, if the top guilds can keep this up. Exorsus and Method getting Varimathras down 3 minutes apart, resulting in them both getting to 8/11, only one boss behind Limit, and putting the two at World #2 and #3, respectively!

And we have a second European guild in the top5 World, with Exorsus taking the step up, putting Kin'garoth down, and advance up the ladder, as they now sit pretty on 7/11!

Method is setting an impresive speed, as they've now killed Kin'garoth in a really short time, putting them up at 7/11, and World #4!

We have ourselves a third European guild to cross the bridge, Nova have slain the Bridge Keeper with the name of Imonar, and they're now going to see if they can get past Kin'garoth in any speedy fashion.

Method seems to know the way to get across the big bridge, as they killed Imonar EU Second, getting 6/11 in the process!

Exorsus once again take the lead, as they managed to waltzing their way across the bridge, past Imonar, getting 6/11 EU First, World 6th!

Method has been doing some Tower Defense practise, as they've made their way past the Legion invaders who tried to disturb Eonar the Life-Binder, to sit at 5/11, EU Third!

Exorsus are tight on the heels of Nova, having just gotten the Legion invaders away from Eonar, and they now have EU Second 5/11!

Nova seems to move at a really rapid pace, as they now are the first EU guild to save Eonar from the Legion. They now sit at 5/11, and EU First!

Method have now caught up with the ones ahead, killing the Keeper of Portals, and taking one of his portal up to 4/11 and EU Third! Nova have also started to come back, having killed High Command EU 4th, now sitting at 3/11.

Exorsus is going strong, putting down the Portal Keeper EU First, but a few minutes later we also got EU Second by Pieces!
Slightly behind these two we have Method who got their High Command kill as well.

The US guilds have yet to go to bed, with Easy having just slain Kin'garoth World Third, 7/11!

Pieces and Exorsus both just got High Command down at just about the same time! We'll have to wait a short while to figure out who got the kill first, but they have EU #1-2 locked down either way, and both sit at 3/11!

Exorsus have also decided that a petting zoo in the final raid of the expansion doesn't belong, and have therefore gone ahead and removed it, putting themselves up to 2/11, and EU Second!

Pieces don't stop, and are now 2/11 and EU First after having slain the petting zoo over at the Felhounds of Sargeras!

And the race have now begun, with Exorsus, Pieces and Nova all getting Garothi down, let's see who got EU first once the servers cool down slighty!

The EU servers have officially opened up, let's see how long it takes for the EU guilds to catch up with Limit, or any of the other top US guilds!

We have a World 2nd on Kin'garoth as Big Dumb Guild move up in the world to 7/11!

And here's Limit's 9/11 killshot:

The Coven of Shivarra Mythic World First by Limit

Midwinter are back and claim another World 5th (their 4th, in fact), as they down Imonar the Soulhunter and join Easy, Big Dumb Guild and Alacrity on 6/11!

Well, Antorus has turned into a bit of a disappointment for now, as we see nine bosses fall within the first day. Limit continue their clear and down the Coven of Shivarra World First, heading to 9/11.

Limit aren't done yet as they go beyond and down the 8th boss in Antorus, World First Varimathras! Now two bosses ahead of the closest competition, it seems Limit really are the very top in the US/OC scene.

Varimathras Mythic World First by Limit

Limit continue their domination as they move to 7/11 and down Kin'garoth World First!

Kin'garoth Mythic World First by Limit

The bridge has been transformed to a highway, as yet another guild cruises past Imonar, Big Dumb Guild being the ones to do so, getting 6/11 as World #3!

Easy get Imonar down as well, World 2nd and head to 6/11 with Limit!

Limit have managed to get over the bridge, killing Imonar, putting them at 6/11, World First!

Imonar the Soulhunter Mythic World First by Limit

Big Dumb Guild are the third guild to find a way to save Eonar from the Legion!  5/11 World #3

We have some killshots, finally, courtesy of Limit's @Preheat1337, who dug through their video footage to give us those images! So thanks a lot and here they all are:

Felhounds of Sargeras Mythic World First by Limit

Antoran High Command Mythic World First by Limit

Portal Keeper Hasabel Mythic World First by Limit

Eonar the Lifebinder Mythic World First by Limit

We have another Eonar encounter finished! Easy grab the World 2nd and head to 5/11 with Limit!

And Eonar goes down as well, as Limit break away from the pack and head to 5/11. World First!

The Portal Keeper falls again and Big Dumb Guild get her down and head to 3/11, saving Felhounds for later and probably heading to 4 very soon. Easy also got her down almost at the same moment, so we'll have to wait and see who got the boss 2nd, but in any case Easy head to 4/11 and join Limit at the very top.

We also have Midwinter heading to 2/11 with Felhounds down, World 5th.

And Limit stay out ahead of the pack as they move to 4/11 with the Portal Keeper Hasabel World First!

Bid Dumb Guild decided to go for Antoran High Command second and downed them World 2nd, heading off to Portal Keeper Hasabel and leaving Felhounds for later. BDG are also streaming their progress and you can check it out here.

Easy and Alacrity also downed Antoran High Command, putting them at 3/11 with Limit!

We also have the next guilds to 2/11, as Alacrity and Easy down Felhounds of Sargeras!

Limit push ahead as they are already on 3/11, with Antoran High Command down!

And it's Limit pulling ahead with the Felhounds of Sargeras World First and 2/11!

And it seems it was indeed Big Dumb Guild that got there first as we're sure to see quite a few more bosses fall soon. COngrats on the first World First of Antorus!

And we have our first kills! It's Big Dumb Guild and Limit with Garothi Worldbreaker down, but we'll have to wait to see who got it first!

It seems Blizzard will be taking Terms of Service violations a bit more seriously in Antorus, as they've posted a reminder on the forums yesterday.

As you’ve seen over the course of Legion, we’ve been consistently increasing our actions taken against Terms of Service violations used to give an unfair advantage in raid and dungeon content. These violations include selling raid clears for real money, sharing accounts between members of the same raid team, and similar behaviors prohibited under the ToS.

With Mythic Antorus about to open and the world first race ready to begin, we felt it was important to give a reminder of our stance on these issues, as well as a warning that we will be actively monitoring and taking action against those who participate in such behavior to gain an early progression advantage in Mythic Antorus.

We’re excited to see how our top players progress through Mythic Antorus in the weeks to come, and want to ensure that the experience is as fair as possible for everyone participating. Please keep this in mind as you begin to work your way through the Burning Throne, and best of luck!

While they were already pretty clear on the real money clears last tier, with 6 month bans for players that were involved, specifically mentioning account sharing this time around seems to be a giant signal to the top guilds, as the practice has been known to happen in the past.

Source: Icy Veins.

Our World First Timeline has been updated with faction icons for all the guilds, and some interesting info has come out of it. The Horde hold 169 World Firsts, whereas the Alliance have 86 in total.

For us here the probably most relevant stat would be raid endbosses killed (which only counts raids with at least 2 bosses), where the difference really shows, as the Horde have 29 and the Alliance only 2!

If we go by expansion it becomes obvious how the guilds all shifted towards Horde over time, as the two biggest discrepancies between the two are Vanilla (36 Alliance, 7 Horde) and Mists of Pandaria, which has the insane stat of 43 Horde World Firsts versus absolutely none for the Alliance.
Here's a breakdown of all the expansions:

World Firsts	Vanilla	BC	WotLK	Cataclysm	MoP	WoD	Legion	Total
	7	26	28	16	43	26	23	169
	36	7	21	12	0	4	6	86

Endbosses

World Firsts	Vanilla	BC	WotLK	Cataclysm	MoP	WoD	Legion	Total
	3	6	4	4	5	3	4	29
	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2

The surprise we mentioned yesterday is here, behold the Raid History World First Timeline!

Head on over to https://www.method.gg/raid-history and check out all World First dates, guilds and kill videos for the entirety of WoW's history, as well as articles related to those raids!

Antorus is finally here, although we'll have to wait a bit more for the Mythic race. The (probably) final raid of Legion has arrived and while we wait to see how the real progress will shake out, we have something to keep you busy - but you'll have to wait juust a little bit more for that. So stay tuned and come back here today around 7:30 PM CET for a big announcement.

Meanwhile, here's our big Antorus: the Burning Throne graphic that'll be keeping you updated on the kills and progress over on the Method twitter:

The race itself is a bit of a mystery, as Method are still seemingly the favorites, but with the potential of Antorus dragging into Chistmas, the Asian guilds that did so well in Tomb will finally get a change to catch up from their usual 2/1 day late start compared to US/EU. Let's remind ourselves just who the competitors might be by looking at the final Tomb of Sargeras standings: