Throne of Thunder Heroic Progress Coverage

Throne of Thunder Heroic Progress Coverage

Article originally posted on Manaflask

UPDATE - May 14 18:14 by Starym
And we're done! We finally have both 10 and 25 man top 20 with 25 man catching up just yesterday. Well, without further ado, here are the final standings in Tier 15 for both 10 and 25 man and huge congratulations to every player in the top 20 guilds on their achievement:

UPDATE - May 10 15:12 by Starym
And the US race is closed out with Vigil and Apophasis claiming the No.5 spots in 25 and 10 man, respectively. Only two more guilds to go for the 25 man top 20, while we already have 25 guilds done with tier 15.

UPDATE - May 06 15:31 by Starym
Some more US action in the past few days in 10 man, with Modest and Skill Banner finishing up the race in US 3rd and 4th spots, respectively! We also have 23 guilds done on the 10 man side, way ahead of 25 man with only 16 finishers so far.

UPDATE - May 02 14:50 by Starym
Duality join the all done club and secure the No.4 spot in US 25 man!
10 man has also had a rush of finishers and now has significantly more guilds that are done with the tier - Myth, Depraved, Not So Serious and Encore Avast take the 12th-16th spots, with Avast also securing the US No.2, beating out Apophasis for the coveted silver! And in all this finishing bonanza, Modest also claimed the US 4th on Lei Shen 10.

UPDATE - Apr 30 03:25 by Starym
And we have a 25 man top 10!. Apex and Wraith claimed the most recent Ra-Den kills 9th and 10th World, 6 and 7th EU. There's a little bit more left in this race, even if the very top is already decided, but we'll definitely continue covering the top 20 in both races, to give credit to the dedicated raiders who are still going for it out there.
So, we now have the top 10 finished in 25 man and here they are:

UPDATE - Apr 29 14:58 by Starym
Sanitas got the first on the 10 man version of the "I Thought He Was Supposed to Be Hard?" achievement, downing Ra-Den on the first try without letting anyone die.

UPDATE - Apr 28 05:32 by Starym
Some more 10 man kills have popped up, with the 11th guild finishing the race in EU 10th place, namely Practise. We also got a US 2nd Lei Shen by Apophasis, so congrats to them for keeping the US 10 man scene active and competitive!
Meanwhile in 25 man, Duality managed to claim the US 4th on Lei Shen.

UPDATE - Apr 27 14:28 by Starym
We have a US first in 10 man! Nightmare Asylum close out the top 10 and take the top honors in the US race, after their Lei Shen kill merely a day ago (also a US first)! Big congratulations to them!
So now we know what it takes for Ra-Den 10 after the strategy is known and the gear is good enough, under 1 day!

UPDATE - Apr 26 22:14 by Starym
9! 10 man takes the lead in Ra-Den kills with Fangs of the Father's kill and 9th place in the race.

UPDATE - Apr 26 21:15 by Starym
No.8 in 10 man has arrived, tieing with 25 man in number of guilds across the finish line! Refuge finish the race with their Ra-Den kill and get to rest until Garrosh!

UPDATE - Apr 25 22:39 by Starym
Crazy amount of action today, with two more Ra-Den kills coming in. The first is by ScrubBusters in 25 man, earning them the World 8th, EU 5th spots, and the second by Tranq in 10 man for the World and EU 7th spot.

UPDATE - Apr 25 20:33 by Starym
It seems we have more Ra-Den slayings afoot. Genuine secured the No.7 spot in 25 man for themselves with their EU 4th kill.

UPDATE - Apr 25 16:01 by Dodar
More 10 man kills on Ra-Den with the No.6 coming in across the finish line, namely the Brotherhood of the Wolf.

UPDATE - Apr 25 12:00 by Dodar
And the top 5 in 10 man are filled: Crushtest defeats Ra-den, World and EU 5th.

UPDATE - Apr 25 00:11 by Starym
Moonz join the Ra-Den club in 10 man, securing the World and EU 4th!

UPDATE - Apr 24 21:43 by Starym
We have a No.6! Envy were really fast on their clear today and got to Ra-Den very quickly, consequently nabbing the World 6th, EU 3rd on the final boss in the raid.

UPDATE - Apr 24 15:53 by Starym
In a bit of an upset, KIN Raiders wind up on top on the Korean side of the Asia servers, getting that Ra-Den kill ahead of Ground Zeroes who had been dominating the Korean side of the race for a long time. KIN are the second Asian guild to get Ra-Den down, with 七 煌 having the first, albeit quite bugged, kill. So they get the Asia second (assuming 七 煌 have re-killed Ra-Den after their fishy one). Still, only those three guilds have managed to down Lei Shen on Asia servers.

UPDATE - Apr 23 06:45 by Starym
And, as expected, Exodus got the World 5th, US 3rd on Ra-Den 25 since they still had attempts remaining after the videos. Of course this, doesn't mean that either they or Midwinter used the videos in any way, but unfortunately it does mean we can't really know for sure whether they did or not.
Meanwhile, we have a 10th Lei Shen kill in 10 man, courtesy of Practice.

UPDATE - Apr 22 22:19 by Starym
Well, more Ra-Den humiliation incoming. Method just got the "I though he was supposed to be hard?" achievement, meaning they killed the boss on their first attempt without anyone dying.

UPDATE - Apr 22 16:27 by Starym
Two more Ra-Den videos are up, another one by Method, a proper and official one this time, and Blood Legion's World 2nd on the boss.

UPDATE - Apr 22 16:05 by Dodar
One more US-Guild managed to kill Ra-den: Midwinter completing this Tier with a World 4th, US 2nd on the final encounter. Maybe Exorsus´ video helped them to defeat Ra-den?

UPDATE - Apr 22 02:25 by Starym
So, DRAMAAA! If you thought it was "just" about the 3rd guild posting a video before the 1st, think again. Envy and ScrubBusters had spent their tries for this reset and other guilds might still have them - considering Ra-Den is a very strategy heavy boss the release of this video might seriously impact the race for 4th, 5th etc. (in 25 man man at least). Let's just hope it doesn't come to that and that the boss endures this week, just so there aren't any doubts about who really earned the "real" kill. God knows we'll already have enough of a mess on our hands if the kill order on Ra-Den isn't the same as Lei Shen...

UPDATE - Apr 22 01:55 by Starym
And heeere we go with the video wars, part 2. It's Ra-Den's time on the big screen with Exorsus having skipped the line and released their kill video just now.

UPDATE - Apr 22 00:07 by Starym
It's just one of those days for old Ra-Den, with the third kill today coming in 10 man courtesy of Hordlinge. It's the World third 10 man kill and 6th total for both races. Congratulations to Hordlinge for making it to the end and earning the bronze in 10 man!

UPDATE - Apr 21 18:02 by Starym
Not to let 10 man have it's day, 25 man strikes back. We have a World third in the Tier 15 race! Exorsus have mastered Ra-den and secured the bronze for themselves in 25 man! Congratulations!

UPDATE - Apr 21 17:31 by Starym
And we have a 10 man World second! Sanitas end the race after Paragon and beat out the competition for the silver with their Ra-Den kill! They even managed to get it down in the same reset as Paragon, so huge congratulations all round!
It's also 10 man day today, with another kill on Lei Shen by Brotherhood of the Wolf, bringing 10 man level with 25 in Lei Shen kills.

UPDATE - Apr 21 01:54 by Starym
Lei Shen is back! 25 man takes the lead again with genuine getting the World 9th, EU 6th kill on the sort-of-last boss!

UPDATE - Apr 19 05:48 by Starym
We have a silver medal! Blood Legion have downed Ra-Den 25 and finally finished off tier 15 with yet another 2nd place finish, and obviously US first. Congratulations to them!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Apr 19 01:32 by Starym
And 25 and 10 are neck and neck again, both in Ra-Den and Lei Shen kills. Tranq even up the score for 10 man today with their World and EU 8th Lei Shen kill. The No.2 spot is till very much open so any one of these 7 guilds can grab it, as the limited attempts somewhat balance out the advantage the early Lei Shen killers have.

UPDATE - Apr 17 22:45 by Starym
We have a winner in 10 man! Shockingly it's DREAM Paragon again, having finally gotten Ra-Den down! Congratulations to them and we wish them a nice rest. The killshot may or may not be coming, we all know how camera-shy Paragon can get!

UPDATE - Apr 16 23:32 by Starym
And 25 man is in the lead again, with the 8th just having downed Lei Shen. Apex take those honor, as well as the EU 5th!

UPDATE - Apr 16 17:08 by Starym
10 man is catching up! We now have the same number of guilds that have downed Lei Shen in 10 as in 25, with the latest conquerors being Depraved with their World 7th kill!

UPDATE - Apr 15 19:40 by Starym
The Lei Shen kill club expands! It's over on the Asia servers this time, with KIN raiders securing the No.3 spot in 25 man!

UPDATE - Apr 14 00:41 by Starym
Moonz are back! After an initial setback a few days after they got to Lei Shen, they've finally recuperated and managed to get the big guy down and secured themselves the World and EU 6th! Now the question remains whether they can reclaim that No.2 spot they held for the longest time and get Ra-Den before the rest (and, obviously, after Paragon).

UPDATE - Apr 14 23:55 by Starym
While we're on the subject of Asian servers, Ground Zeroes recently got the Asia second on Lei Shen on the Korean side of things. Also, Style went ahead and downed Ra-Den in 10 man, which as you'll remember, isn't really a big deal on the Asia servers due to the gear from 25 man and separate resets.

UPDATE - Apr 14 22:45 by Starym
Congratulations to Chinese guild Purgatory for getting the Asia first Glory of the Thundering raider and their very own Armored Skyscreamer mounts!

UPDATE - Apr 14 04:34 by Starym
A quiet Saturday, for once, with just one Lei Shen kill - in 10 man by Die Hordlinge. They grab the World and EU 5th on the boss and are now in the running for that big No.2 spot (ok, so techincally it's a race for the No.1 spot, but come on, Paragon is going to get that top spot). there's also been a lot of Dark ANimus 10 action in the us this past day with three guilds downing him, namely Avast, Nightmare Asylum and Apophasis who will be duking it out for the top US guild honors in 10 man as they head towards Lei Shen.

UPDATE - Apr 12 19:34 by Dodar
The week of Lei Shen's downfall continues with yet another guild putting him in their rear-view mirror. It was CrushTest's turn in 10 man, claiming the World and EU 4th and also zipping past Moonz, who seemed like a lock for the No.2 spot and are not fighting to stay in the Top 5.

UPDATE - Apr 12 10:16 by Dodar
Exodus proves their skills and also managed to kill Lei Shen, US 3rd and World 7th in 25 man.

UPDATE - Apr 12 00:56 by Starym
Yeeep, seems like it'll end up the biggest day since the first week of progress, with yet another Lei Shen death. This time it's in 10 man where we found our World 3rd with Refuge who join Paragon and Sanitas on Ra-Den. Big congratulations there and a bit of a surprise again, with Moonz having had such a huge lead early in the race.

UPDATE - Apr 11 23:39 by Starym
Talk about a busy day... Those legendary metagems are really proving to be the final nail in Lei Shen's coffin and we got ourselves a No.6 in 25 man! ScrubBusters have gone up in the world since last time we saw them with their 10th place in Tier 14. Now they're World 6th and EU 4th, so big gz for the upgrade!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Apr 11 21:43 by Starym
The, now traditional, Nerdscreams for Method's Ra-Den kill:

UPDATE - Apr 11 21:43 by Starym
And, as expected, DREAM Paragon have released their Lei Shen 10 World First video. You can check it out here.
We also dug up the Sanitas World second Lei Shen 10 killshot!

UPDATE - Apr 11 21:14 by Starym
A little overshadowed by the Method Ra-Den celebrations, but big news anyway, as Sanitas claim the World second 10 man kill on Lei Shen! Huge congratulations to them for claiming that 2nd spot after Moonz seemed the heavy favorite to follow up Paragon's now weeks old kill. This also means we'll be seeing the Paragon kill video very soon! Actually, Sanitas didn't have access to the legendary metagems this week as their server hasn't unlocked that content yet, which makes the kill even more impressive, so double gz all round!

UPDATE - Apr 11 21:01 by Starym
And the killshot! We'll talk the guild up very soon on their entire ToT experience but it's a safe bet they'll take some days off after this.

UPDATE - Apr 11 20:34 by Starym
Ra-Den is down!! Method did it again and got the World First 25 man! I was a bit off with the Lei Shen prediction, but the legendary metagems certainly helped with this particular kill. They even got it down on their second attempt, so 28 remaining for the week! They also managed to beat out Paragon for the irrelevant and non-existent "overall" first, but it's still going to annoy Paragon at least a little!

UPDATE - Apr 11 16:49 by Starym
So this week there's something new to contend with, namely a non-nerf nerf. The final stage of the Legendary metagem is available this week due to the gating of dailies etc on the Isle of Thunder. The gem is a pretty big deal for DPS, which is obviously one of the main factors for difficulty on Lei Shen - just as an example, one version has a 30% haste buff with an uptime of around 30-40%. So don't be surprised if we see a lot of new Lei Shen kills this week (Midwinter didn't seem to have them on their kill so even bigger GZ to them!).

UPDATE - Apr 11 09:51 by Dodar
Yeah here we go, with the Top 5 on Lei Shen. Midwinter got the World 5th, US 2nd on the Thunderking.

UPDATE - Apr 10 00:16 by Starym
Envy got the World 4th, EU third in 25 man! Lei Shen suffered yet another defeat and we now have 4 25 man guilds on the, now less buggy, Ra-Den, along with Paragon in 10 man.

UPDATE - Apr 09 04:38 by Starym
A big day for 10 mans, with three more guilds coming up to 11/13 and a shot at that World 2nd Lei Shen. Depraved, Fangs of the Father and Irradiated all got Twin Consorts down today and joined the other 7 guilds at Lei Shen, all chasing Paragon.
Meanwhile in 25 the same thing is happening, also with 3 guilds reaching Lei Shen - Black Lotus, set sail for fail and Catastrophe all came up to 11/13 with some Twin Consorts and Dark Animus action.

UPDATE - Apr 09 03:50 by Starym
So, some new hotfixes have popped up and our old friend Ra-Den is on the list:

Ra-den

  • Fixed an issue that could prevent Ra-den from absorbing Essences of Anima/Vita as intended.


That seems to be exactly what the latest speculation about the 七 煌 bug was, so it seems the mystery is solved. Whether the alleged change to 10 man had anything to do with it or if it actually even happened is still up for debate, but this bug is quite enough on its own and was either limited to Asia servers or was due to the said 10/25 man change in the raid.

UPDATE - Apr 09 01:21 by Starym
Since nothing major has happened in the last few hours let's stay on Asia seervers a little and note that several other guilds have also downed Lei Shen in 10 man in the past few days. Now, since the situtation is so weird over there with the item levels and different lockouts/difficulties the 10 man really doesn't hold a lot of prestige as guilds can always get the insanely superior 25 man loot and even double resets with the separate lockouts. Of course we don't know that these guilds did so, but we also can't know they didn't.
In any case, here they are: Style as we already know got the Asia first, and after them we have 星 辰, Wings of Dawn, Dust, Ground Zero, 炼 狱,  英星集團, in order.

We also have some US action. In 10 man Blood Fury have gotten the US second on Twin Consorts, while Pie Chart have finished up the top 5 on Iron Qon and gotten the US 4th on Twin Consorts in 25 man, with both guilds still not having downed Dark Animus.

UPDATE - Apr 08 18:27 by Starym
The currently trending theory is that by not killing the first two adds and not allowing Ra-Den to get to them he doesn't get any of his abilities (which clearly isn't intended) and is therefore very easy to kill. The going friendly at 5.5% seems to be part of the encounter as he isn't actually supposed to die at the end.

UPDATE - Apr 08 18:13 by Starym
Some more (unconfirmed) info coming out. Apparently their Raid Leader said that:
"they have met something usual during the encounter (Perhaps the boss is not so well-designed?). So they try to make the boss in lower hp, so they can get info about the skills of the boss in later phase. But the boss become a friendly unit with a 5.5% hp and suddenly the boss is dead, with achievements coming out. We are sure that this is not the CORRECT way to kill the boss. And we have reported it to Bllizard. We'll keep on trying next week, untill we find the correct way.
This is coming from Safarmo, who's had some pretty good info before.

In any case, the exact details of what happened aren't really that important (although they are interesting), what matters is that no one has actually killed Ra-Den yet without huge bugs.

UPDATE - Apr 08 18:00 by Starym
More weirdness! Each tier has some buggy/fishy stuff and this one didn't have that big WHAAT? moment so far. Until now, anyway. Ra-Den is dead.

Sooo, yes, here's the story. Apparently 七 煌 switched to 10 man after downing Lei Shen in 25 and that made all of Ra-Den's abilities work as it if were 10 man (except they had 25 people there fighting him). And as if that wasn't enough, remember that 10 man on Asian servers is easier by default for 25 man guilds since the bosses don't have that extra 10% HP and damage. The guild supposedly reported the issue to Blizzard so there isn't any actual exploiting going on, just a bug due to the different way in which 10s and 25s are handled in Asia (different lockout etc).
Now none of this is 100% confirmed but it seems impossible for a guild to get Ra-Den down mere hours after getting their first Lei Shen kill. Hopefully we'll find out more soon.

UPDATE - Apr 08 01:24 by Starym
It seems we actually have a legitimate 25 man Asia first on Lei Shen! Chinese guild 七 煌 have downed him a while ago and grabbed the No.1 spot. Thanks to safarmo for the heads up!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Apr 07 21:20 by Starym
We have two new contestants in the Lei Shen race in 25 man, with Ascendance and Immersion clearing that final hurdle and getting up to 11/13 in 13th and 14th places, respectively.
And in 10 man there's 1 additional guild in that same category, namely Brotherhood of the Wolf, taking the current 8th spot and starting on Lei Shen.

UPDATE - Apr 07 16:06 by Starym
Enough time has passed to make it pretty certain that Ground Zeroes did indeed just pop in to 10 man man and got Lei Shen, so we still don't have an Asian 25 man Lei Shen kill.
Nightmare Asylum have taken down Twin Consorts (US first) and are now the lead US guild in 10 man, moving past Avast. Now there's only Dark Animus left (aside from Lei Shen, and Ra-den, but that might take a while) to fight over for the US top.

UPDATE - Apr 06 21:17 by Starym
As Kyonwow noticed, Ground Zeroes did indeed down Lei Shen on the Asisa servers, but I'm not so sure it's the usual Wowprog misinterpreting it as 10 man. As we've seen in China, downing Lei Shen in 10 man is extremely easy for Asian guilds and so this might just be Ground Zeroes going to test Ra-Den a little and get some extra loot in 10 man. Of course we can't be sure until some time passes when Wowprog usually fixes it's error, so both possibilities are still open. If anyone knows something different (like a screenshot on some Korean site or so) let us know!

UPDATE - Apr 05 23:09 by Starym
Something happened! We have another 10 man guild at 11/13 and this time it's Die Hordlinge, surmounting that tricky Dark Animus they've been skipping. They're the 7th guild to get to 11/13 and 6 of those still haven't downed Lei Shen, so the competition is getting pretty stiff for the No.2 spot in 10 man.

UPDATE - Apr 05 04:29 by Starym
And as the Method video has opened the gates and kind of spoiled some of the other guilds still on the boss, here comes Blood Legion's World second, US first as well. Click here to check it out.

UPDATE - Apr 04 21:01 by Starym
Tranq have moved up in 10 man, clearing that last bit of nasty skip-business and getting the Dark Animus World and Eu 8th. They're among the 5 guilds at 11/13 now, all playing for the No.2 spot right under Paragon.

UPDATE - Apr 04 20:06 by Starym
And Method have released their Lei Shen World first video! You can check it out here.

UPDATE - Apr 04 04:41 by Starym
Exorsus got us their kill shot as well as a very nice shot of Ra-Den in his unactivated state and he looks damn cool (although I'd say he wouldn't exactly use those words to describe his situation).
Preview:

UPDATE - Apr 04 02:08 by Starym
We have a 25 man No.3! Exorsus break the 12/13 barrier proudly and secure the bronze for now, but it seems very likely that this order is how the race will also end. They got the EU 2nd as well, obviously, and a shot at Ra-Den! Interestingly, they actually let their raid reset and cleared all the way up to Lei Shen and downed him in 1 day, now that's just insane!

UPDATE - Apr 03 23:05 by Starym
Some minor 10 man action in the works, with Modest claiming the US second on Primordius, and now we seem to have a solid competition between them and Nightmare Asylum for the US overall second place.

UPDATE - Apr 03 20:10 by Starym
Time for another Asia server update.
It seems there's been a 10 man Lei Shen kill in China. Now, apparently the 10 man HP and damage isn't increased as it is on 25 man for Asian servers (which was to offset the significantly higher item levels there) so it's not really comparable. The guild themselves said that the kill wasn't a big deal as it was low difficulty, and they were primarily doing it to get 10 man access to Ra-Den so they could test things out there, to then take that knowledge back to 25 man, as well as getting extra loot and thunderforged items (remember on Asia servers 10 and 25 are separate lockouts).
Here's the killshot:

Nothing spectacular has happened outside of that, pretty much the same as in the West with guilds catching up to the top with 11/13. In 25 man only KIN Raiders managed to catch up to Ground Zeroes and they are now both at Lei Shen.
A bit more action in 10 man, with several guilds reaching 11/13: Seolpung have taken the lead, with 執著, 湮滅神跡 and Infinite Challenge chasing them, all on 11/13. InCube round out the top 5 on 10/13.

UPDATE - Apr 02 21:21 by Starym
Sanitas re-prove their status in the top 5 of 10 man with their Twin Consorts World and EU 8th kill a short while ago, making it 4 guilds total at Lei Shen, fighting for that 2nd place and a chance at Ra-Den.

UPDATE - Apr 02 20:12 by Starym
As mentioned in the comments we have another hero guild that downed Dark Animus in 10 man! They just missed out on the top 5 but deserve congratulations nonetheless! So good job Depraved, especially since they only skipped Animus once and did everything else in order.
In 25 man Vigil also got the US 5th on Primordius.

UPDATE - Apr 02 17:27 by Starym
Blood Legion will be streaming their re-clear for this reset, up to 11/13 at 7 PM CST, 2 AM CET so be sure to tune in to Affiniti's stream if you want to check out how BL do it!

UPDATE - Apr 02 05:22 by Starym
Some late night action from France in 25 man, with Wraith getting to that magical 11/13 number and getting a shot at Lei Shen and we now have 12 guilds that have cleated the Twins.
Earlier today we also had another 10/13 in 10 man, but this time the +Twins -Dark Animus type by kinetigger.

UPDATE - Apr 01 18:29 by Starym
Easter Monday is a big progress day it seems, with yet another 10 man guild downing the probably 2nd most difficult non-Ra-Den boss in the raid. Sanitas have downed Dark Animus World and EU 5th! Modest also got got the US third on Durumu.
In 25 man Vigil have also finished up the US top 5 on Durumu.

UPDATE - Apr 01 17:50 by Starym
The 10 man CrushTest issues seems to have been explained by iscreami, apparently Intervention was a 10 man guild and it merged with CrushTest. Now, the above isn't confirmed, but they're still on the 10 man list and have gotten a Twin Consorts World 6th kill so they're sticking around. Welcome to the 10 man race, then and congratulations on the World 4th Dark Animus kill!

UPDATE - Apr 01 17:35 by Starym
And we have a world second in 25 man! Blood Legion have gotten clear of the large pack on Lei Shen and gotten access to Ra-Den. Along with the US first, they've also proven that they are indeed the only ones even close to Method in 25 man.
Apologies for the late update, there were some technical issues with Dodar's account.
Killshot

Nerdscreams:

UPDATE - Apr 01 00:19 by Starym
There some potential new weirdness over in 10 man, with Russian guild CrushTest popping up on the charts a few minutes ago out of nowhere, whereas it says they got to 10/13 a full day ago, grabbing a World 4th kill along the way (on Dark Animus, 2 days ago). Now this may just be Wowprog being incredibly slow to update or it might be more 10/25 weirdness, as the guild is both 10 and 25 according to their own statements. Both seem equally likely so pick your favorite!

UPDATE - Mar 31 23:11 by Starym
Prestige Gaming are the latest addition to the 25 man plateau at 11/13, having recently grabbed the EU 11th on iron Qon and EU 8th, World 11th on Twin Consorts. Perhaps they'll have some fresh ideas at Lei Shen?

UPDATE - Mar 31 19:08 by Starym
A lot more action in 10 man this past day. Avast continue to prove they're the No.1 US guild with another US first on Primordius, while Nightmare Asylum have secured the US second with their Durumu kill.

UPDATE - Mar 31 07:09 by Starym
With Lei Shen proving to be a really tricky one for everyone but Method, someone's taken it upon themselves to lighten the mood a little, similarly to what was done with Zor'lok back in Heart of Fear. That's right, we have another boss tweeting to gloat about the deaths he's caused! Check it out here and thanks to heyo for the heads up! And on a completely unrelated note - go play Bioshock Infinite, like, NOW.

UPDATE - Mar 30 18:14 by Starym
Some long awaited action in the upper echelons of 10 man! Refuge have downed Twins and are now on Lei Shen together with Moonz. The third spot in the 10 man race seems a lock for Refuge, as the other two guild that were at 10/13 with them before still haven't gotten past Dark Animus. Since Refuge didn't skip any bosses this entire race they only managed to get World and EU 5th on Twin Consorts.

UPDATE - Mar 30 12:12 by Dodar
Paragon also released a video with their Nerdscreams, thanks to Lestuniem for mentioning.

UPDATE - Mar 29 20:57 by Starym
Avast seem to be the No.1 US 10 man guild at the moment, something they re-confirmed with their US first Durumu kill.

UPDATE - Mar 29 06:44 by Starym
And Midwinter join the top 10! They've caught up with the rest of the top guilds at 11/13, pretty much assured themselves the No.10 spot in this tier and also got the US 3rd on Twin Consorts.

UPDATE - Mar 29 04:19 by Starym
Duality have opted to skip Animus for the week and went straight for Iron Qon, getting the US 4th in the process.

UPDATE - Mar 28 05:23 by Starym
Midwinter continue their climb and claim the US third on Iron Qon, no skipping of any kind!

UPDATE - Mar 28 05:34 by Starym
Ah, well, false alarm, just another hiccup/mental breakdown of the system, genuine are back where they belong in 25 man!
Meanwhile, Duality got the US 4th on Primordius 25.

UPDATE - Mar 28 03:21 by Starym
Ok so there's some new weirdness over at Wowprog, with genuine, the current No.8 25 man guild, popping up in third place with 11/13 in 10 man. It says they downed almost all the bosses in 10 a day or more before they did in 25. I really don't know what that's all about but it's been up on Wowprog for a long time now and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, plus it seems way too specific on the new kill times to be just a random bug.
If anyone has some idea of what exactly is happening let us know in the comments!

UPDATE - Mar 27 22:39 by Starym
And so the third reset of the race is upon us and both the US and EU guilds have warmed up, clearing through ToT yet again. Now we have two big questions: is Ra-Den really going to take a while and are the limited attempts on him limiting enough for the comparatively simpler mechanics and lower overall difficulty than Lei Shen (or at least that's what Blizzard said); the second question is whether Blood Legion can keep their lead over the other guilds and hold on to the No.2 spot, or even get a shot at Method's potential Ra-Den first. With Lei Shen being a very hard and well done boss (I've heard many positive comparisons to Firelands Ragnaros) there could be an upset World second brewing here, with 7 guilds having had a lot of access to him. BL are still the favorites to get the second, but you never know!

UPDATE - Mar 27 02:51 by Starym
And, of course, the inevitable and lovable Nerdscreams!

UPDATE - Mar 27 01:32 by Starym
So Method now have around 5-6 hours and how every many attempts they can squeeze in on Ra-Den before the reset, which is a huge advantage over everyone else in the 25 man race. Now it remains to be seen how difficult and/or bugged Ra-Den really is (remember Sinestra?) and how many resets he will take to go down.

UPDATE - Mar 27 01:19 by Starym
And we have a tease from Sco with the stair leading to Ra-Den:

UPDATE - Mar 27 00:58 by Starym
Well, it seems the true challenge of Throne of Thunder is getting a Lei Shen killshot done! I guess with all the euphoria and excess adrenaline going around it's hard to sit still for a photo. Also without revealing the strat too much.
Killshot:


Lei Shen 25 man World First by Method

UPDATE - Mar 27 00:36 by Starym
LEI SHEN DOWN! Method have done it again, just NEARLY before the reset! Amazing work and dedication there from the favorites, getting it down while the reset was already in place for US guilds. Some poetic justice/irony at least, with the usual complaints of US servers having the upper hand.
Arguably the more important of the two "end" bosses, considering Ra-Den's main difficulty is limited attempts and rumors  are it's extremely bugged at the moment.

UPDATE - Mar 27 00:10 by Starym
It's been cleaning up the trash day today, with said trash being Iron Qon and Twins. ScrubBusters weren't ones to buck the trend and have come up to 11/13 shortly before the reset.
In 10 man kinetigger and Sanitas have also been busy with trash-Qon and have arrived at 9/13, having skipped Dark Animus.

UPDATE - Mar 26 23:38 by Starym
Refuge have busted open the Qon-pinata and are at 10/13 without any skipping! If you wondered what getting to Iron Qon without skipping gets you - it's the World 22nd, EU 19th kill on the boss. But also a lot of damn pride and a big thumbs up from us!

UPDATE - Mar 26 22:56 by Starym
More skippage action in 10 man, with another Twins kill for 10/13, this time by Tranq who take the World and EU 4th on them

UPDATE - Mar 26 22:29 by Starym
It's a clearing bonanza today, with EU guilds feeling the reset on their backs and pushing further. Die Hordlinge have gone up to 10/13 with their Twin Consorts 10 World and EU third, but they still haven't cleared Dark Animus after having skipped it for this week.

UPDATE - Mar 26 22:06 by Starym
Not to be outdone by 10 man, 25 man has some action of its own. Genuine have closed the final gap and caught up with the top guilds on 11/13 and are now at Lei Shen's threshold. 8 guilds now near the almost-last boss.

UPDATE - Mar 26 21:46 by Starym
Some 10 man justice! While several guilds have gotten to 9/13 recently, they all skipped and went straight for Iron Qon, the sure-kill. Well, Refure have returned to set things straight and reclaim their No.3 spot in the race. It took some time, but they just kept at it and finally downed Dark Animus World and EU 3rd! So congratulations to them for sticking to it and not skipping anything!

UPDATE - Mar 26 18:42 by Starym
Depraved move up in the world in 10 man. They took the "last day of the reset" hint and skipped Dark Animus in favor of the loot pinata that is Iron Qon and a chance at some Twins action. They've secured their top 5 spot for now and are in contention for the No.3 spot along with Die Hordlinge an Tranq.

UPDATE - Mar 26 17:05 by Starym
Not much has been going on on the Asian servers recently, with Ground Zeroes still at that 11/13 barrier in 25, but KIN Raiders have caught up a bit and are sitting at 10/13. The rest of the top 5 isn't really in the same league as those two, with Alternative Plan, Phantom Twilight and Nirvana all on 5/13.

In 10 man things are a bit more tight with Infinite Challenge leading the pack on 9, with Seolpung and ?? close behind on 8 and No.4 and 5, Dorayi and ???? ???? on 6/13.

UPDATE - Mar 26 16:45 by Starym
In case you missed it in the comments below (thanks Cerq), Ghostcrawler answered Riggnaros' tweet about not nerfing Lei Shen 25:
No plans whatsoever at the moment to nerf heroic Lei Shen. Enjoy your repair costs. :)

UPDATE - Mar 26 15:41 by Dodar
Prestige Gaming joins 9/13 group by killing Dark Animus.

UPDATE - Mar 26 05:26 by Starym
Midwinter popped in to the top 10 with their Dark Animus 25 US 3rd kill and are skippage free! Immersion and Ascendance also moved a bit, getting into the 8/13 bracket with Prestige Gaming, who've been there for quite a while now.

UPDATE - Mar 26 00:19 by Starym
Having graduated to the significantly easier two bosses section, ScrubBusters move further up in the world and get passed Iron Qon. World 8th, EU 6th.

UPDATE - Mar 25 22:34 by Starym
Busy day today, with more 25 man kills. Genuine got Qon down for 10/13 and broke away from the second pack. World 9th, EU 7th.

UPDATE - Mar 25 21:01 by Starym
ScubBusters join Pulse on the kill train today in 25 man, although on a slightly lower level - they finally got Dark Animus and join the now 3 guild strong group at 9/13.
10 man wasn't resting either, with two more guilds coming up to 8/13, namely Depraved and kinetiger, both downing Primordius and both doing it straight up, no skippage! World and EU 6th and 7th, respectively.

UPDATE - Mar 25 19:57 by Starym
Pulse continue their rise and have capped out for the moment, reaching the current top at 11/13 and got the EU 5th Twins kill in the process. 7 guilds now vying for the World First on Lei Shen in 25 man, with Method and Blood Legion the clear favorites.

UPDATE - Mar 25 16:45 by Starym
Well, the third reset is coming up and the race is still on! Now, that's a great thing but there is a serious threat looming on the horizon, namely a possible repeat of the Twin Consorts situation. Now that Paragon have downed Lei Shen in 10 man there's a danger of Blizzard nerfing him at the reset in 25 like they did with Twins, to balance out the difficulties. Now, the situation isn't exactly the same here, as Twins were an easy boss in 10 man and very hard in 25, whereas Lei Shen is hard in both categories (remember, Paragon got to him significantly sooner than any 25 man guild due precisely to the Twin Consorts issue). And so while there is a a chance he might get nerfed at the US reset (which, again, would be incredibly unfair), but because of the different circumstances there's a solid chance he stays as-is. All we can do is hope that Blizzard have an ounce of respect for the race and leave it be (or at the very least hotfix him AFTER the top guilds are back at 11/13 in the fresh reset).

UPDATE - Mar 24 23:53 by Starym
Some action from a bit lower down in the 25 man chart, both genuine and Wraith have moved up to 9/13, but in different ways. Wraith decided to skip Dark Animus and cleared Iron Qon instead, while genuine followed the linear path and got the EU 6th on Dark Animus.

UPDATE - Mar 24 23:31 by Starym
Pulse march on towards the top, passing Iron Qon for the World 7th, Eu 5th and are now only 1 boss away from the top guilds in 25 man. Considering that boss is Twin Consorts, they'll be there very shortly.

UPDATE - Mar 24 22:31 by Starym
The "TEAM GERMANY" thing has been cleared up, it's just a few members that left Pulse and got the kills in 25 man, made a new guild and Wowprog mistakenly noted them as 10 man.

UPDATE - Mar 24 22:01 by Starym
10 man is the place to be today. Tranq, following their Primordius kill earlier today, did the same as Die Hordlinge and also skipped Dark Animus for the greener pastures of Iron Qon, They got him down World and EU 5th and are now on 9/13. They just missed the 4th spot since Cynetic decided to skip the line and down Qon under an hour sooner, after skipping Council, Megaera, Durumu, Primordius and Dark Animus to get there.

There's also some weirdness going on in Wowprog's rankings for 10 man, with a guild called "TEAM GERMANY" apparently getting the World 2nd on Primordius 7 days ago (??) and the World third on Dark Animus 21 hours ago, while also getting no kills on anything else in the instance. We'll just ignore it for now and check back with it later because it seems like quite the bug.

UPDATE - Mar 24 18:12 by Starym
He's down! Paragon did it again!! 12/13, World First!! It seems he wasn't that impossible after all and it's no surprise the 10 man top team managed to snag it before 25 mans did, so big congratulations! Now let's see just how challenging Ra-Den is and if the majority of his difficulty will be simply based on his limited tries mechanic or if there's something more meaty there.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 24 17:33 by Starym
Good "morning" again. It seems my amazing prediction was amazingly wrong, and we're still on 11 bosses down. That's a good thing, though as the third reset is looming ever closer! In 25 man we have another guild approaching the summit and setting up base camp with the rest at 11/13 (Mountain climbing metaphor, awwwww yeea!). Apex have secured the World 6th EU 4th on Twin Consorts and now have a shot at the World First!

UPDATE - Mar 24 16:05 by Dodar
Some more german 10 man action with Die Hordlinge skipping Dark Animus but downing Iron Qon World and EU 3rd.

UPDATE - Mar 24 01:45 by Starym
Going late into the night today it seems, with Pulse breaking away from the 8 crowd with their World 7th, EU 5th Dark Animus kill. On the Asia servers, Ground Zeroes reached 25 man Lei Shen and have pulled even further away from KIN Raiders who remain on 8/13.
I don't know why, but I'm getting a Lei Shen World First vibe for tonight.

UPDATE - Mar 23 18:08 by Dodar
Apex made a step forward, downing Iron Qon 25 man heroic world 6th eu 4th. Now they are only one Boss behind the top group.

UPDATE - Mar 23 07:10 by Dodar
Exodus is back in the top group, with a World 5th, US 2nd on the Twin Consorts. Now we got 5 guilds fighting against Lei Shen. 

UPDATE - Mar 23 01:43 by Starym
It really is progress day today, with Apex climbing up a notch to 9/13, breaking away from their competitors by way of a Dark Animus World 6th, EU 4th kill.

UPDATE - Mar 23 01:12 by Starym
It's a popular time to down bosses it seems, with another 25 man kill - on the other side of the pond this time. Exodus have moved up to 10/13 and will soon be joining the top 4. They got the World 5th, US 2nd on Iron Qon.

UPDATE - Mar 23 01:02 by Starym
As expected, Envy had no trouble with Twins and continued right up to 11/13, where they now share that plateau with three other guilds. World 4th, EU 3rd.

UPDATE - Mar 22 22:14 by Starym
And Moonz have made good! They've went back and cleared their record of that pesky Dark Animus 10 skip from last week and are now even with Paragon! World and EU second Dark Animus for them, 11/13. Now they just need to re-clear Qon and Twins which shouldn't take long at all and they're competing for the WF!

UPDATE - Mar 22 21:55 by Starym
Things have picked up on the Asian front, at least in 25 man. Ground Zeroes are securing that No.1 spot for themselves, yet again getting more Asia Firsts. They got two this time around, with Dark Animus and Iron Qon falling and earning them the 10/13. If their version of Twin Consoers is anything like the post-nerf one in the West, they'll be at 11/13 very shortly as well. KIN raiders remain at 8/13.

UPDATE - Mar 22 21:28 by Starym
25 man is having none of this "day of 10 mans" nonsense. Envy have pulled ahead of Exodus again and are within 1 boss of the leading trio, Iron Qon down World 4th, EU third.

UPDATE - Mar 22 21:03 by Starym
It seems it's 10 man day, with another high profile kill coming in. Refuge have caught back up to Die Hordlinge and downed Primordius World and EU 4th.

UPDATE - Mar 22 19:50 by Starym
The 10 man action ain't stoppin'. Depraved felt the heat from the two new 6/13 entries and stepped on the gas to down Durumu World and EU 5th.

UPDATE - Mar 22 18:55 by Starym
More 10 man goings on, with two more guilds hopping to 6/13, but in very different ways. Depraved went the normal route, downing Megaera and then Ji-Kun, while kinetigger downed Megaera, which they skipped last week and went to Ji-Kun so they've filled in their gaps. In any case, they are 6th and 7th in the overall standings, respectively.

UPDATE - Mar 22 17:35 by Starym
10 man supplies the action yet again with the third guild to bust the Primordius barrier. Die Hordlinge claim the World and EU third on the big guy and are at 8/13, just two bosses away from second place Moonz.

UPDATE - Mar 22 16:46 by Starym
It seems Exodus' spot in the 8/13 club has been filled. Prestige Gaming have downed Primordius, and are now among the 7 other guilds working on Dark Animus.

UPDATE - Mar 22 06:52 by Starym
Early morning kills, ah, is there anything better. Of course it's not early in the US, so it's more of a night vibe. Anyway, Exodus re-join the top in 25 man, rounding out the top 5 for now with their Dark Animus US second, World fifth, and are now in a battle with Envy over who will get closer to the top 3 first. Considering how difficult Lei Shen is at the moment, they may just get their shot at a World First if they hurry up just a little bit!
Duality also pulled ahead in the race for US 4th with their Ji-Kun kill.

UPDATE - Mar 22 06:50 by Starym
Well, it's gone quiet again in both races, so let's check up on the lower end of the rankings and see how things are going there. With 11 guilds in 25 man getting past Primordius and arriving at the 8/13 mark, a surprisingly small number followed closely after. Only one guild is currently on 7/13, the Durumu number, namely the Russian guild Prestige Gaming. A further six guilds surmounted Ji-Kun and arrived at 6/13, while 10 others are stuck at 5/13, having downed Megaera (or not, depending on skippage). You'd think the numbers were going to get higher the lower you get, but no, as we only have seven guilds at 4/13. The numbers do pick up at 3/13, with 15 guilds surmounting that particular obstacle, but the majority there skipped Council. At 2/13 is where it gets interesting with 54 guilds getting past Horridon and no further and, predictably, 1/13 is the most numerous category with 144 members.

In 10 man things get really weird in the rankings with all the various permutations of skippage, whether it's Council or Megaera and you have guilds all ove the place and I'm going to just cover the top, so I don't get an aneurism. Paragon and Moonz are clearly in a league of their own at the top with 11 and 10/13, respectively, and then we have two guilds on 7, another two on 6 and nine on 5/13. That's where it gets messy and where I say it's waaay too late/early to stare at all that weirdness!

UPDATE - Mar 22 00:06 by Starym
Here we go with some 25 man action. Exorsus have made it back to where they were yesterday and then quickly slid past that to join the top two on 11/13. They didn't really have much practice on Twins last week, so it took them around 10-15 tries after the nerf, which is still very low. In any case, they grab the World third, EU second.

And just to prove that 10 man is the place to be today, we also have a World and EU 4th Durumu kill by Die Hordlinge, bringing them to 7/13, tied with Refuge and both looking up at Moonz and Paragon.

UPDATE - Mar 21 19:23 by Starym
ACTION! Well, perhaps not caps worthy, but still. There's been a little movement in 10 man with a third guild at 6/13 and having downed Ji-kun (along with Council and Megaera), namely Depraved EU, who are now sitting at no.6 in the overall 10 man charts. We also have three new US guilds that downed Council, but still none that got Megaera.

UPDATE - Mar 21 07:23 by Starym
We have some activity! It's not much but Midwinter joined the 8/13 club, downing Primordius US third in 25 man. We now have seven guilds on 8/13, with Envy on 9, Exorsus on 10 and Method and BL duking it out over the World First Lei Shen.
Also on the US front we got our US first 10 man Council of Elders, courtesy of Nightmare Asylum.

UPDATE - Mar 21 00:09 by Starym
Method made it back to Twin Consorts and promptly downed the now significantly easier boss (it has 15% less HP since last reset). Method need exactly one pull to down the previously toughest boss in the instance so yea, amazing feel for fine tuning there by the devs yet again. In any case, Method are now back to being tied with Blood Legion at 11/13 and grabbed the World second, EU first along the way. Now the real race begins with the first of two endbosses in this tier, let's see if Lei Shen can handle the double reset-geared gulds as well as Blizzard's overcompensating of "balance".
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 20 21:27 by Starym
And it has started to move! Blood Legion push through the already downed bosses and manage to get the World First on Twin Consorts! It seems we have a race on our hands yet again! Only Lei Shen and Ra-Den left, now let's see how long it takes Method to catch up! Apparently they were stealth nerfed yesterday, because that's always the right way to handle changes to bosses during progress. GJ Blizzard once again....
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 20 10:50 by Starym
Here we are in week two of progress! It seems weird even saying that, but it's true and we still have three bosses to go in 25 man and two in 10 man. With EU servers now up all the competing guilds are in the new reset and going for some extra loot to help them down those pesky Twin Consorts (25) and Lei Shen (10). So let's just see if the extra reset's worth of gear can change the situation or if we'll perhaps be looking at some hotfixes to the bosses down the line, like we've seen on several already. Method, Blood Legion and Exorsus are going to be competing on the same level for the 25 man World Firsts, with Envy just a little bit behind and Paragon is still the clear favorite in 10 man, although it remains to be seen whether the No.2 guild Moonz will try to down the boss they skipped this week to get a bit more loot, namely Dark Animus.
Let week two of Tier 15 begin!

UPDATE - Mar 20 02:15 by Starym
With EU servers going down for maintenance soon, let's check in to see what's been happening on the Asia servers.
In 25 man it's still KIN Raiders and Ground Zerois at the top, having both progressed to 8/13, with Ground Zeroes taking the rest of the World Firsts since we last checked in (aka Durumu and Primordius) and KIN taking the second. The rest of the pack is way behind, with the third placed ?? only being up to 4/13. The 4th and 5th in the race are at 3/13, namely Phantom Twilight and Arche.

In 10 man thing are progressing a bit slower, with the top guild ?? only at 6/13, ?? in second with 5/13 (but having skipped Megaera), ???? ???? with 4/13 in third place, Infinite challenge in fourth but, weirldy,  with 5/13 (and with Council skipped) and Overtake rounding out the top 5 with 3/13.

UPDATE - Mar 19 22:36 by Starym
Aaaand here we have some nerfs/fixes!

  • Throne of Thunder
    • Council of Elders
      • Reduced the penalty to damage taken from the Shadowed Soul debuff from 5% to 3% per stack on 10-player Heroic mode.
    • Dark Animus
      • Dark Animus will now use its abilities at more consistent intervals.
      • Interrupting Jolt now deals less damage on 10/25-player Heroic mode.
      • Explosive Slam now deals significantly less damage on 10-player Heroic mode.
      • Fixed an issue where Matter Swap could sometimes teleport players beneath the world.
    • Ji-Kun
      • Fixed an issue where Bore Worms would remain submerged.
      • Fixed an issue where Bow Fly Swarms would enter combat while remaining out of melee range.
    • Megaera
      • Reduced the damage dealt by Megaera’s breaths and Ignite Flesh on 10-player Normal mode.
      • Reduced the damage dealt by Rampage on 10-player Normal mode.

UPDATE - Mar 19 22:19 by Starym
As Velasius noticed, there has been some movement in the 25 man US chart, with Suit up and Duality getting the 4th and 5th kills on Council of elders and Vigil nabbing the 4th spot on Ji-Kun.

UPDATE - Mar 19 22:08 by Starym
More Moonz action. Predictably, they've also downed Twin Consorts since apparently it's not exactly a difficult boss in 10 man, In any case, World and EU second.

UPDATE - Mar 19 20:46 by Starym
Envy is the next through that Animus wall and the fourth guild to go 9/13. As we've seen with the first three, Iron Qon won't be that much of an obstacle so they'll soon be joining the very top on 10/13 and competing for that Consorts World First! World 4th, EU 3rd.
Also in 25 man, genuine have bumped up to the large 8/13 group, filling Envy's missing place!

UPDATE - Mar 19 19:49 by Starym
More 10 man action, with the No.3 guild breaking off from the 6/13 pack and getting that World and EU third on Durumu. GZ to Refuge!

UPDATE - Mar 19 17:36 by Starym
Whoops. I take back my Moonz! statement. Didn't really see this one coming so it blindsided me: it seems Moonz decided to skip Dark Animus and instead downed Iron Qon. I don't really understand why they'd do that, considering the clean record they've had so far and the pretty hige advantage they have over the other 10 man guilds following them. I suppose it just wasn't fun to wipe on Animus anymore, and, shockingly, some people do still play the game for fun! You know, that, or they're hogging the World seconds! Regardless of all of that, it's a bit sad to have to put an * next to their names in the tables :/

UPDATE - Mar 19 16:51 by Starym
Moonz! Seems we have more than one seriously hardcore guild in 10 man, with Moonz plugging away at the instance and just getting World second after World second. This time it's Dark Animus and they're 2 bosses away from Paragon, on 9/13. Congratulations!

UPDATE - Mar 19 13:57 by Dodar
Aaand we got Exorsus downing Iron Qon World 3rd 25 man. Now three guilds are at 10/13, fighting for world first Twin Consorts.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 19 03:47 by Starym
Die Hordlinge join the 10 man "clean team" on 6/13 without having skipped anything! Three gulds at Durumu now, with Moonz and Paragon waiting further up for the next challenger to step up.

UPDATE - Mar 18 23:23 by Starym
Tranq still showing everyone how it's done in 10 man and pusing to that that 6/13 clean, no skipping! Of course when you do play legit you also get the World 35th, EU 27th Ji-Kun kill, but they are sitting pretty at No.4 on the overall 10 man chart so it's definitely worth it!

UPDATE - Mar 18 21:33 by Starym
ScrubBusters join the 8/13 crowd as they down Primordius Eu 7th. Six guilds now 2 bosses way from the top, let's just see who will be the next to break out and follow Exorsus towards the top and Twin Consorts.
In 10 man, it seems Megaera is a significantly bigger problem than Council, with yet another guild that's downed Council opting to skip her and down Ji-Kun instead - namely Myth and ????? ???? who are now at 5/13.

UPDATE - Mar 18 20:09 by Starym
And we have the first Megaera 10 man kill since Refuge, with Tranq going the normal way and not skipping anything, which earned the the World and EU fourth spot. Congratulations to them!

UPDATE - Mar 18 17:24 by Starym
Exorsus are the first of the pack to make a break for the top 2 and go 9/13, getting the World third, EU second on Dark Animus in the process.

UPDATE - Mar 18 16:00 by Dodar
The Twin Consorts seem to be funny in 25 man, so we got no moving in the top spots. Meanwhile is Paragon trying to kick Lei Shen´s Ass, to proof their No. 1 spot, but that can also take quite a while. So lets do some sum up:

As we were talking about Paragon, lets start with 10 man:
The first Boss, Jin´rokh was not a problem at all, so we have 378 guilds wo finished him off. Horridon could defend himself quite good, only 105 guilds managed do defeat him. Now we get to the first wall in 10 man: Council of Elders, which only let 14 guilds pass on heroic. But many guilds skipped them, so Tortos got defeated by 49 guilds. And as its an up and down, Megaera was only killed 3 times, while the next boss, Ji-Kun has been put down 27 times. Durumu and Primordius were beaten by Paragon and Moonz, and thats when Paragon started to get serious. Claiming the only kills for Dark Animus, Iron Qon and Twin Consorts.

Now, lets take a look at 25 man:
Jin´rokh the Breaker has been beaten by 188 guilds, Horridon by 81 guilds and the Council by 23. Of course also 25 man guilds skipped the council, thats why we got 31 kills on Tortos. Only half of the guilds that were able to defeat a turtle could manage the heads of a hydra, Megaera was downed 15 times. Ji-Kun was not a big deal, 13 guilds defeated him, while 11 could pass Durumu and only 8 Primordius. The Dark Animus and Iron Qon were put down 2 times each.

UPDATE - Mar 18 10:53 by Dodar
Midwinter scored an US 3rd on Durumu, putting them on 7/13.

UPDATE - Mar 18 05:23 by Starym
We have some minor action on the 10 man front, with Fragile messing up their record a little. They had a nice and clean 4/13 with Council down, but they went ahead and skipped Megaera and opted to go for Ji-Kun instead, putting them on 5/13.

UPDATE - Mar 18 03:14 by Starym
Genuine also put Durumu in their rear-view mirrors and we now have 10 guilds that got to the. the 7/13 mark

UPDATE - Mar 18 00:28 by Starym
The first to break out of the 6/13 stall is ScrubBusters, but they still have a long way to the top. Durumu 25 EU 7th.

UPDATE - Mar 18 00:13 by Starym
Ok so my depression over how fast bosses are dying must have gotten the better of me because I could have sworn I just saw a Paragon killshot...Am I going insane or?!

UPDATE - Mar 17 23:53 by Starym
HOOOOOOO HERE WE GO! Paragon are goin berserk and have overtaken the 25 man guilds for the first time! Twin Consorts wasn't a big problem for them it seems, World First! let's just hope that it's much harder on 25 man or I'm finding a cliff and jumping off it.

UPDATE - Mar 17 22:24 by Starym
Moonz took the hint from Paragon and decided it was time to move, so they went ahead and got the World and EU second on Primordius 10 and are sitting tight at 8/13.

UPDATE - Mar 17 21:57 by Starym
Blood Legion are keeping up the pressure on Method and are also on 10/13. Iron Qon 25 man World Second, US first.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 17 20:08 by Starym
It seems Iron Qon was quote the pushover in both 10 and 25, as Paragon have downed him very soon after Dark Animus. Another World First, and now on 10/13, with 3 bosses to go. So Method and Paragon on the top again. So, even though they are clarly in different disciplines and the encounters aren't the same and can't really be compared, there's no harm in speculating on who will get Ra-Den down first! What do you say?

UPDATE - Mar 17 18:11 by Starym
And Paragon get Dark Animus down! 9/13 in 10 man and yet another World First!

UPDATE - Mar 17 17:16 by Starym
The progress train is going strong today with Wraith joining the main pack at 8/13, which now has six guilds. World 8th, EU 6th.

UPDATE - Mar 17 17:10 by Starym
It's interesting how even not releasing a killshot can have an impact - now that there's even a hint that the boss positioning may have had a major role in the Iron Qon kill other guilds (aka only Blood Legion for now) are going to be trying to see what that position might be. But perhaps that was all just a clever ruse to waste other guilds' time?! The psychological warfare commences!

UPDATE - Mar 17 16:20 by Karsten
RAMPAGE! As a popular Moba would put it. Method is unstoppable, taking down Iron Qon in just a few hours - and the day is not even over! Who knows how far they can get today?

This smells like Chromaggus ramp all over again. Anyone remember? Method refuses to release killshot, says "best we can do is this":

UPDATE - Mar 17 14:10 by Karsten
German juggernauts Pulse keep on pulling one German First after the other - this time over Primordius! World 7th, EU 5th.

UPDATE - Mar 17 12:07 by Karsten
Another guild braved the monster that is Council of Elders in 10m. Russian guild ????? ???? took them down for the EU 8th!

UPDATE - Mar 17 08:51 by Karsten
Roughly six hours after Method Blood Legion manages to take down the Dark Animus as well! Let's see if they can catch up on the next boss - Iron Quon.

UPDATE - Mar 17 02:46 by Starym
WHOA, this is very unexpected. Method have downed Dark Animus 25! First guild to 9/13 and on to Iron Qon! Let's hope he proves to be the actual wall, because if this turns into yet another 1 reset race I may enrage.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 17 00:06 by Starym
A little over an hour after their Megaera kill Refuge just keep on killin' and down Ji-Kun to further secure their third spot in the 10 man race. It's only an EU 5th due to all the skippage going on, but it's definitely going to put some pressure on Moonz to catch up to Paragon sooner reather than later!

UPDATE - Mar 16 22:38 by Starym
In case you haven't noticed, we have some new  videos, Ji-Kun World 5th by Exorsus and Durumu World First by Blood Legion, so check them out here.

UPDATE - Mar 16 22:19 by Starym
Pulse join the party just ahead of the top pack, closely following Wraith to 7/13 with their EU 6th Durumu kill.

UPDATE - Mar 16 21:42 by Starym
Saturday is the day for 10 mans it seems - Refuge just pulled further ahead of the pack with their Megaera World 3rd kill.

UPDATE - Mar 16 20:42 by Starym
We haven't had a lot of nerd screams lately so it is high time to address that. Particularly since it's French screams and ergo clearly more sophisticated, courtesy of Wraith and Durumu:

UPDATE - Mar 16 19:49 by Starym
Seems like another Asia server update is due, and just in time too.
In 25 man things have become a bit complicated with the top 2 guilds changing places. KIN Raiders have been ahead up until now with Ground Zeroes close behind, but GZ have pulled ahead on the last two bosses, grabbing the Megaera and Ji-Kun Asia firsts, leaving KIN in second place. The rest of the pack has made minimal progress, going from 1 to 2/13 and is now comprised of PhantomTwilighT, Nirvana and ?? in 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively.

10 man hasn't had that much action, with Myth Club still in first place on 4/13 and no new kills, but the second place has been taken by ?? on 3/13. The rest of the top 5 are ???? ????, Power Moving Goja and Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corp, all on 2/13.

UPDATE - Mar 16 19:27 by Starym
It's getting action-oriented again it seems, with Wraith heading up towards the top with their Durumu World 7th, EU 5th kill, only 1 boss away from the top pack and perhaps a bit of a break considering Dark Animus' difficulty.

UPDATE - Mar 16 19:03 by Starym
And then there were 7! The last of the 7/13 has come up to the top, Envy downed the last barrier to a shot at World Firsts with their Primordius World 6th, EU 4th. So now it's all evened up and it's probably going to take until next reset to get a proper shot at Dark Animus.

UPDATE - Mar 16 18:13 by Starym
It seems we don't get any full days to rest, with the 10 man race keeping us up! Moonz have broken that Durumu barrier and are hot on the heels of Paragon with their World second kill. They're 3 bosses in front of their next competitor so them and Paragon have quite the buffer. Dark Animus seems as tough on 10 man as it is on 25 so that might be where we park until the next reset and more loot, or worse, some kind of hotfix/nerf.

UPDATE - Mar 16 15:18 by Karsten
Movement in 10m! Fragile just defeated Council of Elders for the World and EU 5th.

UPDATE - Mar 16 06:33 by Starym
Midwinter is the latest to join the Ji-Kun grave celebrations and grab the US third along the way.

UPDATE - Mar 16 06:07 by Starym
Yep, it seems like skipping both Council and Megaera is all the rage these days, with another guild downing Ji-Kun in 10 man. This time it's Rehabilitation Clinic and they get the US third.

UPDATE - Mar 16 05:10 by Starym
Another weird 10 man phenomenon, Wowprog says Gag Reflex have also downed Ji-Kun while skipping both council and Megaera. So it's ether a bug or word is spreading that Ji-Kun is a pushover! In any case they are now 4/13 and got the US 2nd, World 5th...maybe. Funnily enough, the US first on Ji-Kun is by Fresh Baked Puns who apparently skipped everything except for Jin'rokh to down that bird.

UPDATE - Mar 16 04:33 by Starym
Aside from being known for a lot of bird deaths, today was probably the worst day ever for Primordius, with 3 new kills on him. The latest is Exodus, with their World 5th, US second kill to bring them up to the top on 8/13. Dark Animus seems to be quite a wall so they might be there a while, but at least now we have five guilds competing for the World First so it should get really interesting.

UPDATE - Mar 16 02:50 by Starym
Apex are on fire! Following Exorsus' ascent to the top they've followed suit and downed Primordius World 4th, EU 3rd and are now one of the four guilds on 8/13.

UPDATE - Mar 16 02:48 by Starym
Some weird stuff going on over in 10 man with Herp Derp apparently downing Ji-Kun after skipping both Council and Megaera. Could be another of those screwy Wowprog messes, but it could also be a skip fest, in which case it's a World and EU 3rd kill. We'll keep an eye out for further developments.

UPDATE - Mar 16 01:08 by Starym
Time for some big news. The first of the growing pack of guilds following Method and Blood Legion has broken through and joined them on 8/13! Exorsus have claimed the World 3rd, EU second Primordius kill and are now in the running for some World Firsts.

UPDATE - Mar 15 23:10 by Starym
I guess it's just not a good day for birds, with yet more incoming to the growing ranks of 6/13. ScrubBusters got the EU 9th on Ji-Kun.
In 10 man we have several Council skippers downing Tortos and one brave guild that actually got Council down, namely Tranq, so big gz to them, World and EU 4th!

UPDATE - Mar 15 22:28 by Starym
It's getting crowded on 6/13, with four guilds standing over Ji-Kun's corpse in 25 man. The latest bird-slayer is ??????? ???????, with the World 10th, EU 8th. Immersion also went forward, downing Tortos and setting up shop at 4/13.

UPDATE - Mar 15 19:01 by Starym
Let's check up on those Asian guilds shall we?
Starting with 25 man, KIN Raiders is still going strong but perhaps not as fast as expected, but with the different difficulty we can't really compare their progression to the World race - they got 1 more boss down, namely Tortos. They are joined at the top by Ground Zero who are also 4/13. The rest of the pack hasn't moved and are still on 1/13.
In 10 man Myth Club have downed 2 more bosses ince last we checked in, with Tortos being their latest, so they're at the top with 4/13. Power Moving Goja and Annihilation Miracles have stayed on their 2/13 score and are joined by Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corp also on 2/13.

UPDATE - Mar 15 18:52 by Starym
10 man is cooking today! Moonz, perhaps feeling Refuge catching up to them have push forward, getting 1 boss closer to Paragon and going 6/13 with their World second Ji-Kun kill. Congratulations!

UPDATE - Mar 15 18:34 by Starym
Some more middle of the pack 25 man updates, Midwinter took down Megaera for the US third while genuine has moved up to 6/13 with their World 9th, EU 7th Ji-Kun kill.

Meanwhile we have some progress in 10 man, with Refuge, the only guild that was on 3/13 without skipping Council also downing Tortos, but because of the skippers it's only World 7th, but still EU 3rd (since it's mostly US guilds that skipped Council). They've secured themselves the third spot in the 10 man race and it seems they intend on staying there.

UPDATE - Mar 15 18:02 by Starym
Apex just joined the big boys in the 7/13 crowd, downing Durumu Eu 4th, World 6th! It's getting crowded up there and they're only 1 boss away from the top and a chance at World Firsts.

UPDATE - Mar 15 17:44 by Starym
Every "morning" I wake up during progress, as I'm walking to my PC, I chant "please don't let there be a new top kill, please don't let there be a new top kill" and today is the first time it worked! Dark Animus could be our man...or thing or whatever and manage to make this a *cross fingers* *knock on wood* *throw a virgin in a volcano* two reset race!

On another topic, as Sinnermighty mentioned I have a fondness for typos, and usually it's funny and/or sad but this one is just hilarious. You might have noticed something we keep calling Magaera and if you did you might have thought to yourself (as Obblivion did) "the hell is a Magaera??". Well, this one's not entirely on me - you see Eoy made the awesome boss banners at the bottom of the post and we just took the name from there, mostly since Magaera actually sounds like a fantasy creature's name, as opposed to MEGAera. For a moment I thought this was probably the same Blizz guy that named Ultraxion and Supremus, but it turns out Megaera is actually ancient Greek for "the jealous one" and is one of the furies in greek Mythology. Lesson learned, and we're keeping our failure in for all to see, but will be referring to her properly from now on, so thanks Obblivion!

While we're on errors, this has been Dodar's first progress race, he's also only been with Manaflask for around a month, and he made a bit of a mistake with Wowprogress' (fairly confusing) rankings, so apologies for that as well. The Enraged Revolution skipping Council isn't on him, though, as it said they downed it yesterday.

UPDATE - Mar 15 17:31 by Dodar
After decades of nothing happening in 10 man, Moonz got the World and eu 2nd on Magaera. Paragon still leading 10 man with 8/13, followed by Moonz (5/13).

UPDATE - Mar 15 16:56 by Dodar
Wowprog is at the moment totally bugged, so we got a new kill showing up. Envy got the world 5th and eu 3rd on Durumu.

UPDATE - Mar 15 16:30 by Dodar
Seems like we mixed up some things. Wraith killed Ji-Kun World 7th and EU 5th, followed by Pulse, World 8th and EU 6th. We apologize for this mistake.

UPDATE - Mar 15 16:00 by Dodar
Wraith following Pulse, going 6/13. None of the guilds is going to give up the chance of getting to the top.

UPDATE - Mar 15 15:50 by Karsten
German guild Pulse is not giving up, securing themselves a World 8th (EU 6th) on Ji-Kun. Still a step ahead of their national competitors genuine!

UPDATE - Mar 15 14:27 by Dodar
Exorsus got the World 4th for Durumu, so we have 2 guilds at 8/13, 2 guilds at 7/13 and 3 guilds at 6/13. All of them have good chances to claim the top, but top favorite now is definitely Method.

UPDATE - Mar 15 11:26 by Dodar
So we dont have any updates the last few hours, i´m not sure wether the guilds are taking a break, or - that would be really unexpected - the encounters are simply not defeatable at current state. Since Blood Legion and Method can´t manage to kill the Dark Animus, this would be a chance for other guilds to get back in the race. Good job blizzard, this race can last for a long long time.

UPDATE - Mar 15 05:58 by Starym
More incoming to Magaera's funeral and 5/13. Mindwinter joins the ever-growing pack (6 now) and claims the 25 man US third.
Some sad news in 10 man, as Rehabilitation Clinic have decided to call it quits on Council and skipped them to move on to and kill Tortos. So all three US guilds with kills on Tortos have skipped Council to get there.

UPDATE - Mar 15 05:17 by Starym
genuine continue climbing the charts, reaching 5/13 with their EU 9th Magaera kill. We have two guilds at 8, one at 7, three at 6, five at 5, two at 4 and two at 3 out of 13 in 25 man.

UPDATE - Mar 15 01:44 by Starym
More US action, with Exodus downing Durumu, World 3rd, US second. They've started their catch-up with the top 2 guilds, and only Primordius is left between them and the front lines.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 15 01:39 by Starym
Midwinter secure their spot as the No.3 US guild with their Tortos kill, and Enraged Revolution move up to 3/13, passing Council in 25 man.

UPDATE - Mar 15 00:26 by Starym
ScrubBusters and Wraith got the hint and got moving, both moving up to 5/13 with Magaera dead, EU 7th and 8th, respectively.

UPDATE - Mar 14 00:10 by Starym
It's time to give some big props to Refuge, the first 10 man guild in a LONG while that's downed Council of Elders! They got the World 3rd kill on them, so big congrats!
In 25 man genuine and Set Sail for Fail join the turtle basher club at 4/13, while we have another new entry in Immersion, who got past Council and are sitting at 3/13.

UPDATE - Mar 14 23:09 by Starym
Well, when it rains it pours! Yet more 8/13 action, with Blood Legion catching up to Method in 25 man with their World second, US first on Primordius. Time to start that Dark Animus fanclub.
BL killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 14 23:04 by Starym
Not to be outdone by the 25 man guilds, Paragon have gone and claim yet another World First, this time on Primordius and are now tied with the top 25 man guild on 8/13!

UPDATE - Mar 14 22:46 by Starym
The action seems to have calmed a little but we still have some updates, with ScrubBusters downing 25 man Tortos at 4/13 and Set sail for fail having also passed the 25 man Council fence.

UPDATE - Mar 14 20:52 by Starym
Pulse have also broken the Magaera barrier and proceed to Ji-Kun to battle it out with ??????? ??????? to see who the next guild is to join the top. World 8th, EU 6th.

UPDATE - Mar 14 20:18 by Starym
We have a breakthrough from the 4/13 quagmire! ??????? ??????? have downed Magaera World 6th, EU 4th and are one step closer to the leading pack.

UPDATE - Mar 14 20:01 by Starym
It's time to check in with the Asian guilds, even thought they aren't participating in this race they have a race of their own on their hands. As a reminder, they have higher item levels, separate 10 and 25 man lockouts and harder bosses to compensate as well.

Not surprisingly KIN Raiders is leading the pack in 25 man, having gotten Council of Elders down already, closely followed by Ground Zeroes (2/13) and then Phantom Twilights followed by Stars who are both on 1/13, and finally Alternative plan in 5th place also on 1/13.

In 10 man Myth Club is the leader of the pack, ???? ???? in second, Power Moving Goja third, Annihilation Miracles fourth, all at 2/13 and rounding out the top 5 is Fabulous on 1/13.

UPDATE - Mar 14 19:11 by Starym
Problems again, with US login servers having issues. Apparently there are mismatched versions of the game (an issue I had myself yesterday with Heart of the Swarm) so it's some new tech Blizzard is trying out and failing at. We don't know how and if the top US guilds are affected by this but it's good to know nonetheless. Here's the forum blue link.

UPDATE - Mar 14 18:23 by Starym
And it's Method in the lead once again, the Tier 14 winners are back in the saddle with their World First Primordius!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Mar 14 17:47 by Starym
It's getting crowded at Magaera in 25, four guilds have passed Tortos and are staring that snake-thing down, with Wraith being the latest of them.

UPDATE - Mar 14 17:25 by Starym
Paragon do it again! Durumu is either less of a problem in 10 man or the awesomeness of the Finns is just too much for any boss to ever handle. It's redundant to say at this point, but, yea, World First!

UPDATE - Mar 14 17:02 by Starym
Apex keep proving that they really want one of those top 3 spots badly, having just downed Ji-Kun 25 EU 4th, World 6th. It seems we also have a bit of a race going between Envy, Exorsus and Apex on top of the BL/Method/Exodus one.

UPDATE - Mar 14 16:11 by Starym
Haven't even had time for my "morning" coffee and already we have some big news! Method have caught up with Blood Legion FAST and are now the second guild to down Durumu! 7/13 came up faster than we thought and the top two guilds from the last tier are neck and neck again. World second, EU first!
Killshot:


Durumu 25 man EU first, World second by Method

UPDATE - Mar 14 15:20 by Dodar
Exorsus managed to get back to the top group by killing Ji-Kun. We got a huge group of challengers for Blood Legion.

UPDATE - Mar 14 14:40 by Dodar
Ji-Kun seemed not to be a problem to the Paragon guys, now they are at 6/13 and only one boss behind Blood Legion is in 25 man. Lets see who makes it, 10 man or 25 man.

UPDATE - Mar 14 14:25 by Dodar
Genuine is doing a good job at Tortos, finishing him off World 8th, EU 6th and german 2nd.

UPDATE - Mar 14 13:54 by Dodar
Now we got some action: Pulse defeated Tortos EU 5th, only minutes before ??????? ??????? did the same. 

UPDATE - Mar 14 13:33 by Dodar
It took them a long time, but Paragon finally showed why they were number 1 and defeated Magaera 10 man World First!

UPDATE - Mar 14 13:33 by Dodar
We got another guild that finished off the Council, Wraith defeated them World 12th, EU 9.

UPDATE - Mar 14 12:11 by Dodar
Blood Legion got it! They finished off Durumu world first. They had the endurance to keep on trying and get back to the top.
Killshot:


Durumu 25 man World First by Blood Legion

UPDATE - Mar 14 11:25 by Dodar
I guess Blizzard did a really great job, designing the encounter, as we got nothing, not even something unspectacular going on. Well, maybe Blizz took the right step and managed to tune bosses, that are not defeatable in the first week. 

UPDATE - Mar 14 09:17 by Dodar
Another guild skipped the Council in 10 man und moved on to Tortos, who seems easier than the Council. Modest got the World 4th for the turtle and ist now at 3/13.

UPDATE - Mar 14 08:33 by Dodar
Seems like the guilds are stuck at their bosses, since we cant see any new kills. Well, lets wait, Durumu must be a really hard fight, thanks Blizzard to that. And if the following bosses get harder, as they told, this race will last a while.

UPDATE - Mar 14 05:52 by Starym
Council kills are fashionable these days and Midwinter has joined the fad. US third for them.

UPDATE - Mar 14 04:50 by Starym
Genuine join the post-Council crew and grab the Eu 7th on them as well.

UPDATE - Mar 14 03:24 by Starym
Gag Reflex have gotten Tortos down, but they don't seem to have Council down, so they either skipped Council by doing it in normal mode or it's just more Wowprog shenaningans, but it seems likely that they actually skipped it.

UPDATE - Mar 14 02:15 by Starym
Apparently angry that I called it names, Wowprog just got 7 billion new updates. It seems both Apex and Exorsus have downed Magaera taking the EU 3rd and 4th, respectively. Pulse has also made it past Council in 25 man, apparently they got them just a few minutes before ScrubBusters to take the EU 5th so the rankings have been modified accordingly.

UPDATE - Mar 14 01:57 by Starym
Ok, so while Wowprogress is having some kind of stroke or mental breakdown (still hasn't updated Paragon or Method's last two kills etc, etc), it seems there has been some action on the 10 man scene. Now, take this info with a grain of salt as digging through armory isn't exactly my forte. Moonz have stealthily downed both Council of Elders and Tortos bringing them up to 4/13 and netting them the World second kills on both those bosses! We'll keep an eye out if Wowprog ever updates to confirm if someone else didn't beat them to the punch.

UPDATE - Mar 14 01:17 by Starym
Envy are definitely securing their place as the No.2 EU guild at the moment and have joined the other three guilds at 6/13. EU second, World fourth Ji-Kun. All four guilds at Durumu now have a chance to take a huge lead and even though the US guilds have had significantly more time on the boss than the rest it's still anyone's race. Now the big question is whether this Durumu fellow will require a full reset or nerf/hotfix to die.

In honor of our fallen feathery friend, here is a tribute to his suffering.

UPDATE - Mar 14 00:39 by Starym
With Durumu the Forgotten forgetting to let the guilds pass him, I thought it would be a good idea to check out some statistics on the Hero

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