Crucible of Storms has been open for a day on Heroic and Normal difficulties and it's time to check in on just who got those Heroic first kills as we wait on next week and the start of the Mythic race.
As you'd expect, after a full day and a half of the raid being accessible on NA servers, there's been plenty of guilds that finished the two bosses up already. More specifically, 503 guilds made it past Uu'nat, Harbinger of the Void. The first guild to do so was WC Gaming, followed by The Rise and SSEN, with The Depraved and Redline closing out the top 5, all from US servers. The top EU guilds for Heroic were SNYGGA POJKAR, Экзекьют, Hello Crittys, Revoke and Mithril Knights.
We'll be covering the Mythic race when it starts next week, and talking to Method raiders about the way they'll be approaching this mini-raid. Considering the final boss is supposed to be as hard as Jaina, it's going to be interesting to see whether the fact that there's only two bosses will even impact the race's length, as the first 8 bosses went down in under two days in Battle of Dazar'alor.
Limit will be streaming their progress for the first time in Crucible of Storms! Starting on Tuesday when Mythic opens. we'll be able to check in on the top US and No.2 World guild and their tactics on the two bosses of the latest raid. While Method haven't yet announced any specific plans for their streaming, it's a safe bet they will be streaming in one form or another, which means we get to watch both top guilds go head to head. Now all that's left if to hope that Uu'nat is indeed a worthy challenge and we'll have a damn fun race on our hands.
We are pleased to announce that we're bringing you with us on our journey into Mythic Crucible of Storms!
We will have plenty of POVs to choose from, and we hope to see you there on Tuesday #Warcraft
Cayna recently talked about Method's Crucible of Storms Mythic race preparations as well as the race itself, whether the raid will turn out to be a "real" competition, what Limit streaming means for Method and a lot more. Check out the interview here.
Crucible of Storms on Mythic has officially opened!
The US servers have gone up, but they currently have issues with the Authentication servers, meaning they have issues logging in.
Well, it seems the Restless Cabal aren't to be trifled with, at least as far as first bosses go, as there's still no kill after 4ish hours! Limit have been going at it, stacking some Priests to try and get over that hump, but the Cabal isn't having it. We've had 43 tries and the best one so far was at 39%/46% on the bosses.
We have some progress as Limit have taken the Restless Cabal down to Fa'thuul at 29% ,and Zaxasj at 23% as their best attempts after 59 pulls.
Big Dumb Guild are actually ahead of Limit, having their best try at 18%! BDG have usually gotten a lot of early first kills, but with the difficulty of this particular boss it's impressive that they're this far ahead of Limit at the moment. Of course these percentages could turn out to not matter much, as getting to low % and actually killing the boss are two very different things.
The kill is getting ever closer for Limit, as their best try so far has the bosses at 9% and 7% with 104 pulls. Limit has also gone for a 10 Priest raid comp and Big Dumb Guild's best try is still at 18%, while Wildcard Gaming's is at 11%/28%.
Whether they'll be able to get the boss down today is pretty unclear, which bodes well for the race in general, if Uu'nat is progressively harder and this isn't just another Imperial Vizier Zor'lok situation.
And day 1 is done for the US guilds, and no bosses have been killed! The 9% on Fa’thuul and 7% on Zaxasj was still Limit's (and anyone else's) best try after 130 attempts and we're going into EU day with a clean 0/2 slate!
Here's Limit's best attempt:
Europe have now joined the race!
Will The Restless Cabal prove as resilient to the Europeans efforts, or will we get a World First soon?
With the raid only having two bosses, we're deprived of all the early bosses dying real fast, so that we can know which guild looks to go the hardest and strongest. Only real way to know is to watch the guild that stream and try to figure out their best pulls. This gets further complicated by there being two bosses, so does guild A have better progress if they have one at 15%, and the other at 35%, or the guild that has both bosses at 25%?
With that in mind, I won't try and list who is currently in the lead in EU, but most all of the streaming guilds have the bosses in the 20-30% range, and in essence are trying to get past the last two runes.
This raid truly show what happens if you remove all the bosses that get killed in 1-5 pulls, and instead just implement the final two, hard, bosses!
As always, when an update is being posted, one of the guilds gets some progress done, with Method just having had their best pull this far, getting the bosses down to 14% and 22% respectively.
Frags PoV can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/415593613?t=09h03m37s
Pieces prove themselves as the top dogs, downing The Restless Cabal World First!
An amazing performance by Pieces, with a bit of a surprise there, to be honest, with Limit's best try still the 9%/7% one and Method getting to 14% and 22%. It's really great to have a new guild take a World First after, as it's been a pretty long time since we've seen a new face on the very top, especially from the EU side of things. So huge congratulations to everyone in Pieces! Here's their setup, featuring "only" 8 Priests, with 5 Shadow and 3 Disc.
We now also have both Limit and Method streaming, so you can follow the now 2nd and 3rd guilds live!
Limit: https://www.twitch.tv/team/limit
Method: https://www.twitch.tv/team/method
Since we don't have live Method coverage from the usual Red Bull Sphere we have a different treat this time around: a Crucible of Storms talk show!
Join us today at 23:30 CEST / 5:30 pm EDT / 2:30 pm PDT for the Crucible of Storms Talk Show on https://t.co/vZLfucyjpA.
— Method (@Methodgg) April 24, 2019
Catch up on the #RaidProgress #RaceToWF with @FinalBossTV @RichWCampbell @PreachGaming @Nobbel87 and surprise guests! pic.twitter.com/3QIoqHiIdT
Pieces' lead is growing as no other guild has downed the Cabal just yet, with Aversion coming the closest by far, with a 0.3%/9% wipe! Limit are still at their 9%/7% try from yesterday and Method have progresses a bit more, but are still only at 17.4% total, as you can see from this clip:
And so we have Pieces progressing on Uu'nat alone and pulling ahead constantly. If the final boss is progressively harder as they tend to be, it's going to be a solid challenge, as so far Crucible of Storms has been a pretty memorable race.
Limit just had a very low % attempt, with boss bosses at or under 2%, meaning that a kill is coming really soon. Here's the last half of that attempt:
In case you missed it, we'll be having a EU focused race this time around as Limit won't be raiding for 5 days after today. A large part of their roster (7 players) will be competing in the MDI this weekend, and getting time off work is difficult/not possible so they decided not to focus on this raid. This is also pat of the reason they decided to start streaming this time around. It's always bad news when a top guilds pulls out of a raid, but hopefully they'll be back for Azshara's Eternal Palace.
due to us only being able to take off work for a raid one every 6 months to 1yr instead of the 3 months here we only have 24 raiders for this and 7 in MDI potentially meaning we cannot raid thurs-sunday at all. our views on streaming where we can go all out hasn't changed. https://t.co/aezyIJJuBK
— max (@maximumwow) April 17, 2019
Limit have gotten the Restless Cabal down, World 2nd. After their very close call a while ago, they managed to get the last 4% down and finish the two tentacled ones and catch up to Pieces. Now it's time to head on to Uu'nat and face the final obstacle of the Crucible of Storms.
Here's the kill video, and we now get to see some Uu'nat action! 202 pulls and some 24 hours spent on the boss.
And the raid composition, with the Priests dialed back to 9.
After a long time waiting for that World 2nd, it seems the 3rd spot is here much quicker: vodkaz take the bronze and US/OC 2nd on the Restless Cabal!
Method has gone ahead and joined the top of the pack, getting The Restless Cabal down World 4th, EU 2nd!
We have the World First kill of The Restless Cabal by Pieces now released.
Exorsus seems restless in their pursuit of the top spot, and snagged the World #5, EU #3, kill on The Restless Cabal.
Aversion is the latest guild to get past The Restless Cabal, giving them a world rank of #6, and EU #4.
Here's Method's best try of the day (and overall) on Uu'nat, clocking in at 63.6%! There's varying rumors about Pieces, ranging from 41 to 51%, but we don't know anything for certain, other than they had around 6+ extra hours of tries ahead of Method.
We also had another Cabal kill, this time by Practice, for the World 7th, EU 5th!
And here's another perspective for Limit's Cabal kill:
Another Cabal kill has arrived, this time from the US. Club Camel have grabbed the World 8th, US/OC 3rd and are now headed to Uu'nat on 1/2.
Here comes some Crucible tuning, as Uu'nat gets some Mythic only nerfs, while Restless Cabal somewhat unexpectedly gets some buffs!
Dungeons and Raids
Power Overwhelming has increased to 1000% (was 300%).
Oblivion Tear targeting now prioritizes ranged players.
Hunger for the End no longer heals the caster upon reaching a stack count of 10 or more in Mythic difficulty.
Unstable Resonance now checks for negative collisions after a very short delay instead of immediately upon being applied on Mythic difficulty.
We have a US 4th kill on Cabal, with Big Dumb Guild also taking the World 9th 1/2.
And we have ourselves a top10 on The Restless Cabal!
Honestly claims the last spot, whilst also nabbing themselves US/OC 5th.
The Asian guilds have now joined the race with a bang, with several guilds having downed The Restless Cabal in a very rapid pace, including, Alpha, Skyline and a few others. With the lack of a functioning Armory APL it's very hard to keep track of who has done what, but we'll try to get the correct rankings sorted out!
We've have a few more Cabal kills today, with Halcyon, Wiping as Intended and ScrubBusters getting in on the restlessness and grabbing spots 17-19.
We have three highlight videos of the best tries so far by Method, vodkaz and Exorsus, featuring 46%, 67% and 62% wipes! Obviously the boss tends to heal up a bit when a wipe starts, so the percentages are off of the lowest number reached before a wipe starts.
The Top20 for The Restless Cabal has been filled out, with Unwealthy Homeless Men taking the final front page spot.
Method have pushed quite a bit harder today, as we have a 33% try!
Method keep pushing further as we're down to 24.5%!
Plus, here's Josh's take on Uu'nat's difficulty, as compared to Jaina and the fairness of the encounter/tuning and design:
We have some pretty significant Uu'nat Mythic hotfixes/nerfs, going live just before the US reset and bringing us a lot closer to a kill!
With hotfixes to all regions, we've made two adjustments to Mythic difficulty Uu'nat in Crucible of Storms. Uu'nat no longer can cast Oblivion Tear immediately following Unstable Resonance and the timing of Eyes of N'Zoth has been changed to coincide less with Unstable Resonance.
— WarcraftDevs (@WarcraftDevs) April 29, 2019
A big day starts very soon, as the Uu'nat nerfs kick in and the final day of the EU reset begins. We have a whole lot of guilds pretty close to each other in the top 5, with Method still being on top, but by very little (and still no word on Pieces' progress, making this very reminiscent of the BoD final EU reset day). Aversion are the closest to Method's 24.5% best try, with this impressive pull, under 2% off!
Exorsus are a bit further away, with their 33.5% pull:
Alpha are just as close as Exorsus, which is doubly impressive due to their 1-2 day disadvantage, sitting at 34%. You can check out their video here.
While we've been focusing a lot on the final boss (obviously), a whole bunch more guilds managed to get the Cabal down and we actually have exactly 40 progressing on the final boss! While it was to be expected due to the small nature of the raid, it's still great to see that many guilds going at an end boss at the same time.
A big Uu'nat nerf arrived, which pushed Method to their best try yet, another 12% down from the previous. We've pushed through the 600 pull barrier and will be reaching Kil'jaeden levels very soon.
Limit also rejoined the fight, but we still don't know what Pieces have been up to, so today might be the day.
Here's the VoD of yesterday's Crucible of Storms talk show, covering all the events of the day:
The race is starting to reach it's end, with Method just having had a 2% wipe!
Will any other guild be able to get Uu'nat, Harbringer of the Void down before Method, or will the reigning champions keep their crown?
It seems Pieces are also sub-10%, based on Josh's info, and apparently any pull from Method could result in a kill.
In case anyone was wondering why Sco was absent today, here's his statement:
took me by surprise that this 2 boss raid has taken more than 7 days of mythic raiding to clear (100 hours of raiding). I was not predicting that at all and hotfixes making the fight easier came in late in the reset slowing progress down considerably (after about 400 pulls). 2/4
— Scott McMillan (@Methodsco) May 1, 2019
If I can get my hands on an IRL streaming back pack then I will see you guys soon (hoping it comes through), if not then I am going to try and enjoy/relax on my first real vacation for around 3 years
And here's that 2% pull, still the best confirmed so far:
Pieces have done it!
Uu'nat, Harbringer of the Void has finally fallen, downed by Pieces, making them the usurpers of Methods stronghold on the World First title!
Here comes the killshot and we know they took 725 pulls:
And here's the raid comp:
And here come the Pieces WF nerdscreams!
And so we have our new entry to the World First endboss hall of fame, making it 14 now. The last time we have a new guild enter this hallowed group was Exorsus back in Legion, 8 raids, 2 years and 8 months ago, when they got Xavius down.
We have an updated wipe count, standing at 731, as our previous source may have missed a few pulls!
Method have now finished the raid as well, getting Uu'nat down World Second!
And we have ourselves the World First Uu'nat kill video released by Pieces!
The bronze medal this tier goes to our Asian champions, Alpha, meaning they got World Third, Asian First Uu'nat mythic down!
Alpha kill shot:
The Chinese guilds have really stepped up this tier, showing the world just what a powerhouse region they are, with Jitianhong and Chao Jie getting World 4th and 5th, and Asia 2nd and 3rd respectively.
And here comes Method's official multi-PoV video:
It seems Crucible really is a playground for Asian guilds, as we have yet another kill, this time from Korea and AFK R, taking home the World 6th, Asia 4th 2/2! We still only have 2 European and 4 Asian guilds that have managed to finish up the Crucible of Storms, as the second US reset has arrived. It seems Uu'nat is a real challenge for all but the very top guilds that put in a lot of effort and time into defeating him.
Also, we'll have an interview with the Crucible champions Pieces up soon, so we can find out everything about their Crucible journey!
Uu'nat has gone down once again, to another EU guilds this time. Aversion claim the World 7th, EU 3rd on the final boss of the Crucible of Storms!
A bit of a change in the leaderboards as Skyline took down the Harbinger some 2 hours before Aversion, netting them the World 7th, Asia 5th and bumping Aversion to World 8th!
We have a new US/OC No.1 in this race as well! Club Camel clear the Crucible and down Uu'nat World 9th! Congratulations!
We have a top 10! Exorsus and FatSharkYes have crossed the finish line and grabbed the World 10th and 11th spots, EU 4th and 5th! We now have 5 Asian guilds, 1 US and 5 EU that are done with Crucible of the storms.
We have more crossing the finish line, as ScrubBusters, NollTvåTre and Practice have taken down Uu'nat, World 12-14, EU 6-8, just before the nerfs arrive.
Here comes the US/OC second, with vodkaz taking Uu'nat down just before this week's nerfs, World 16th.
Speaking of them, here are those nerfs that will be implemented with each region's weekly reset:
- Crucible of Storms
- The Restless Cabal
- Void Crash and Crushing Doubt now prefer ranged targets.
- Witness the End duration reduced to 7 seconds (was 9 seconds) in Mythic difficulty.
- Zaxasj the Speaker and Fa’thuul the Feared health reduced by 5% in Mythic difficulty.
- Uu’nat, Harbinger of the Void
- Void Crash now prefers ranged targets.
- Insatiable Torment now prefers damage dealers.
- Piercing Gaze of N’Zoth duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds) in Mythic difficulty.
- Undying Guardians health reduced by 17% in Mythic difficulty.
- The number of players targeted with Unstable Resonance has been reduced to 12 per cast (was 18) and now prefers ranged targets on Mythic difficulty.
- Uu’nat’s health reduced by 5% in Mythic difficulty.
- The Restless Cabal
We have two more US/OS kills as Honestly claim the 3rd regional spot and Big Dumb Guild the 4th.