Posted by iTZKooPA on Monday, November 17th, 2008 - 44 Comments
Tags: malygos, naxxramas, nihilum, patch 3.1, raids, sk-gaming, twentyfifthnovember, wotlk, wrath, wrath defeated
We all knew that there would be plenty of people out their racing to hit level 80 as soon as possible. Not you racing against your friend or guildmate. I mean someone who would take vacation, go without sleep, eat dry packets of Ramen (hey, the saliva will hydrate it) and pee in empty bottles of energy drinks, until they finally dinged level 80. As Juggynaut mentioned, this happened less than two days after Wrath went live on the European realms.
Since then, I am sure many of us have witnessed server wide messages proclaiming the first of this class or race to hit 80. Even the North American realms, which are a bit behind due to timezones, have plenty of 80s roaming Northrend. It was only a matter of time before people began taking on the 10-man and 25-man raid content.
For TwentyFifthNovember, that time was under two days after Nymh hit level 80. TFN is the General Electric of World of Warcraft. A guild conglomerate put together by SK-Gaming (Curse) and Nihilum to achieve world first kills and to create “one of the best World of Warcraft community sites.” Their fancy new site is set to launch on November 25th, well after they started putting up new content. If you head over there now, you will be informed that they have beaten all of the raid content that Wrath of the Lich King has to offer.
Getting a group of players together that fast is an achievement of itself. The guild took it one step further by beating the re-tuned Naxxramas and swiftly moving onto Malygos, the hardest boss currently in Wrath. 68 hours and 30 minutes later, and TFN is standing on top, waiting for Patch 3.1 and Ulduar.
These guys are obviously good at WoW, but damn that was fast. TFN’s announcement post wasn’t entirely self-congratulatory though. The team questioned Blizzard’s tuning of the raids, even suggesting that Blizzard may have made them easier to put the “large casual player base…on equal footing with end-game raiders?”
What do you guys think? Are they just too good, or is Blizzard trying to appease the larger audience? Hitting 80 inside two days is one thing, beating Wrath inside a month, let alone three days is another. Comparatively, it took almost five months for Nihilum to beat The Burning Crusade’s PvE content. Of course, if I mention TBC had more raid content, it isn’t really defending Blizzard…Seems like Ulduar cannot come soon enough.
Related Posts: Ten Days of Knight: Day Two, Ten Days of Knight: Day Five, Ten Days of Knight: Day One, How Much Wrath is Too Much Wrath?, Ten Days of Knight: Day Nine,
By iTZKooPA on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
First!
By DarkDoctor on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Am I the only one concerned by this? It all seems so easy. I am wondering if either Blizzard missed their mark, or if they have a greater plan for it all.
Then again, I think people wondered the same thing when TBC came out. I’m sure there’s plenty of content they want to add that they haven’t yet.
By Cloudbearer on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I’m not too worried. We’re talking about a guild that probably spent significant time in beta and had a pretty good idea of how the fights and zones work.
Notice a lot of the first level 80’s that have been interviewed all were in beta - they found spots they thought they could level efficiently in.
There is always going to be a group like this that plows through content. If it were 5 million people instead of 25, I’d be worried. For us normal players, it will probably take us a while!
By Pauldy on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I can’t fault blizzard for making it easier it seem they are now focusing pushing people to creating alts. I think the boa gear is an example of getting players off their mains and into running through the levels again as a different race or class and experiencing all the rest of the game. I’m guilty of having one main and a few extra bank chars none over level 15. With some good boa gear I might not be nearly as put off at the idea of grinding up a healer as an alt seeing as how there always seems to be a shortage of healers.
By Allenok on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I dont understand why people would blow through as much content as they can in a matter of days. These are probably the same people who were bitching that they were bored and had nothing to do at 70. Well, grats now you all have nothing to do again while the rest of us take our time and enjoy what this new expansion has to offer.
By TreborSL on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Raid Content is always a tricky balancing act.
The high end guilds whose primary role is raiding will always be better at clearing content than either mid or low level guilds . So if you make it as hard as it can be the high end then the mid and low will find it virtually impossible to ever accomplish such goals.
A classic example would be pick five strangers and five people who group together routinely, dress them all in the same gear then send both sets to do some instance.
Which group will have an easier time doing the instance ? The people already use to working together of course. Does that mean the instance is too easy because one group did it better than another group ? Of course not.
Lets hope Blizzard doesn’t over react and re tune such content until some other guilds try the things
By Ironhoof on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Oh man I was right after all. Many people said “It’s not possible” or “You can’t do all end-game raids in less than a week”. I believe Blizzard should do some very hard Bosses. It would be a very smart move by them to make Arthas very hard to kill (harder than Malygos and Naxx). It should be fun to see all the guild having a hard time killing Arthas (it’s the end-game boss after all)
By QQ on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
agree with above post. Why blow through all the content? i mean grats on your shiny new achievement, but enjoy staring at that for the next 2 months or so while everyone else catches up. I agree with Blizzard in making the raids more user friendly, not all of us can afford (or want to) take time off to play wow 24/7.
By Bob Cronin on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Impressive, I suppose, but what’s the point? Now they have nothing to do for the next two years whilst awaiting the next expansion. I plan to take my time and enjoy the journey to 80.
By Henry on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
sorry, but i want to get my full $69.99 worth (yes, got the collector’s edition), so i’ll get to 80 ASAP but not too concerned w/end game content seeing as the game JUST came out! I want to ENJOY myself!!!!
By Eric Drake on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
SK just believes they have to live up to their name. Doing EVERYTHING first and being the best at what they do. How do they even stay interested in this game when they blow through content the day it comes out? It’s honestly pointless. They probably had a guild requirement that EVERYONE be 80 within the first two days so they could blow through everything the next day. Lame. And no, I do not wish to be able to do that and am in no way jealous of them. I would much rather have fun with WoW than make it a job.
By djtyrant on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
The thing is is that with TBC a lot of the content was keyed (SSC/TK) and Mag/Gruul were insane pre-nerfs. Also the game was nearly unbeatable at 2.0 (Kael’thas looking at you buddy).
There are no barriers to raiding here, no gear checks, no keys/attunements.
It does worry me though as a raider that this stuff is going to be blown through in a few weeks for a good portion of the hardcore raiding community.
There should have been a gear check or something, but whatever, I just hope Blizzard really knows what they’re doing.
By Nylow on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
WTF!!! R u serious?!?! I understand elitest, but that is just sickening. I am by no means going to call them “cheaters”, but that seems just too much too fast. I understand that peeps have reached 80, but to have taken on a re-tuned Nax & all of the stuff for WotLK boggles the mind.
A little explanation on how they achieved it would help.
By lawman30 on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I think something like this comes down to how Blizz wants to balnce the interests of the different kinds of players. If 25th wants to be world first to clear content and that it their goal, then WHY ARE THEY COMPLAINING THAT THEY DID IT?! Its like my kid after Haloween asks me if he can eat as much candy as fast as he can and I tell him “Sure, but you might not find it very satisfying.” Then he does and then he gets sick. He achieved his goal but he’s unhappy.
25th is a group of, from what I understand, Professiaonal Level Players. If their goal is to clear content, then they had plenty of time to plan just how it would go down once content went live while they were in beta. IF, HOWEVER, their goal was to engage in content that required EXACT group composition and PRECISE execution of strategy to down a boss after a 10-15 minute fight, then why didn’t they say to Blizz during beta “You know, this raid content is pretty watered down. Use this for 10 man and crank up the difficulty on 25 man.” The answer is obvious: that’s not what they wanted.
Blizz should be able to do both and it appears, from the 10 man versions of 25 man content, that they want to allow everyone the opportunity to see endgame stuff and that is GREAT. If you take 100% of my money every month, I HAD DAM WELL BETTER BE ABLE TO AT LEAST HAVE A CHANCE TO SEE 100% OF THE GAME, and not be frozen out (no pun intended) of some content because I don’t have the time or “qualifications” to join a top level raiding guild.
Knowing nothing about the amount of programming it would take, I can’t imagine that Blizz can’t either refine the difficulty of the 25 man content (especially on heroic), or add a separate difficulty level for those who truly enjoy the long, grueling, precision demanding fights. As long as all the “pros” want is a challenge, Blizz should give it to them. But if the “pros” want content that only they can see because of the time they can devote to the game because they are sponsored and the game is their job, then screw that! Unless, of course, Blizz wants to charge me a less than full amount because I will have a chance to only play less than all of their game.
By lawman30 on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
EDIT*
In my parenthetical, I meant to say (especially if they made it heroic) as opposed to (especially on heroic).
I DO KNOW THAT 25 MAN RAIDS DO NOT HAVE HEROIC DIFFICULTY! =P
By Sefeth on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Are you saying that maybe its for the best that it is watered down? or that merely 25th just wanted to achieve their goal and then complain about how easy it is? i may have missed your point but on either side of the discussion shouldnt it always remain true that blizzard should have the wisdom and foresight to see how things would play out? surely 25th breezed past wrath mostly because of their talented players but if the game itself has been nerfed then that just means blizzard has made it the norm for raids to be like that, and based on WoW’s past two phases it seems like its following a pattern of nerf sticks.
I can only say this from how ive seen the turn-out of WoW, from anal molten core runs to the idea of an easy 10-man raid instance and now i’ve bear witness to an entire expansion blown away in less then a week by the best players WoW has to offer.
Maybe blizzard is simply giving the proffessional players the shaft and this is what will become of WoW, i dont like saying that but this is one hell of an outcome and i dont know what to think after ive seen servers nearly destroyed by vanilla WoW raids and now this.
But who knows eh? maybe 25th is just a bunch of lifeless ghouls and i might’ve been making a big deal out of this, but honestly folks, lets pray that this whole expansion wont be like the final patch boss nerf and that in the end we can sit in our chairs and curse 25th for a thousand years, or otherwise this wont be too fun of an expansion.
By Jeff on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Why not go the whole 10-yds & add difficulty levels to the game…? (j/k…)
If the content is ’so easily completed’ for these players, why (not that I know if it makes any difference) are they playing on ‘Normal’ servers…?
Blizzard could do worse that set up ‘Heroic’ servers that are exclusively accessible (via a qualifying passcode, for example) to players who have ‘aced’ the game on ‘Normal’… add to that; once accessed, qualifying characters can ONLY access said ‘Heroic’ servers…
Thoughts…?
By Joenips on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Hitting 80 is an achievement in itself but I heard that this morning on my server (lothar) we got our first Death Knight 80…..55-80 in just under 4 days thats insane
By Chris on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
i can see why they were able to do this feat because they already did it in the beta version so it can be seen as they already know what to do so they did it.
By Jon on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
As a casual player,(I want WoW to be a part of my life, not my life), I like to think I may one day be able to finish the game, not be locked out because hard core gamers find it too easy. Its bad business to cater yourselves to the exception, and not the rule. In every game, there are going to be the overly competitive, the ones who have to win, but I want to play, and achieve…do I care they did it in less than 3 days, no, good for them, I do this for the joy, not the power. I left a PvP server, cause I was tired of being squashed by high level characters that got nothing out of it than some sadistic glee. Anyways, have fun playing, and Blizzard, please don’t punish me because I am not the exception…
By Thunder on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I can’t say that I think that the next content patch should come any sooner or later because TwentyFifthNovember slammed through it.
While I think that this is an amazing accomplishment, I don’t think that the game should change just to appease such a small percentage of its population.
By Pintaphilly on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
This is what you get when u merge 2 guilds with extremely dedicated members, willing to race to lvl 80 24/7 with no sleep, and some wicked carpal tunnel and then proceed into clearing an instance which they had already experienced (Naxx-40) and Malygos. There is a reason why it is the only guild that has accomplished this.
No other guild has cleared all of the WotLK content yet… so its not Blizzard’s fault, it’s TwentyFifthofNovember’s fault for rushing the shit out of wotlk just to get first kills and be the “best” in a game.
I’ll just sit back, relax, and level at a decent rate (currently 76) and start naxx/malygos next week with my guild.
By Illithian on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
World of warcraft has the casual and the hardcore.
Blizzard is trying to force the two together and I don’t think it will bode well. I am level 80 along with most of my guild and I am not worried YET. We have just finished Naxx and tomorrow we start Malygos, so I wont be worried until thats done.
Anyway, I still have proffessions to level =) and alts too.
By Jasper on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 6:15 am
for me its not the fact that they did it so quick that worries me, they spend months in naxx before tbc and then spend months in the beta. It’s the fact that they cleared wotlk raid content (so far) with only 5 people in the raid being 80…
Not that alot of other people can do that because they arent decked out in swp gear, but still…
To all other people, slow down and have fun. thats what its about.
By friskydingo on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 6:55 am
i just want to lvl at a normal speed. im one of those people who wants to do end game things, but i only have the weekend to do it bc i work evenings. but also too, im not up for making things so easy, u can throw a pug together and bam its done….oooo shiny gear! now what? to me that can destroy a game. i had been apart of vanilla wow, but could never get into it enough to ever do anything. TBC comes out, then i finally take the time, lvl up a character and eventually hit 70, but i never really did much as i only had time for heroics, occasional kara and pvp.
but now that i have about 3 70s, and i was apart of beta and am lvling now, i feel that seeing what this guild did, makes me kinda nervous that i might finally be able to do endgame content. i get it all done…okay, now i just use an alt and do the same thing? not fun. everytime a game gets like that, it dies….not saying this might be the end of blizz, because they are good at fixing things.
and seeing these guilds, as good as they are, just being able to do evertyhing now?! well maybe there isnt much to do to start out, but when i get that lvl, even tho i dont always have the time, i want that challenge. Blizz has made me addicted in a good way, and i was getting fed up with TBC, and i only had a 70 for a year…..so how long will i get fed up with WOTLK? hope it takes forever, bc this is so promising. now if these 2 guilds might have done this in a month, or maybe a month and a half, those guys are really good at what they do, and i would understand. but take away the skill lvl from a game, and u dont have a game, u have what is happening with the wii, grandma can complete the game…go grandma! but im hoping blizz is pulling one on us and is going to have this stuff be easy, but seeing the first big raid to be release for WOTLK, be like BT when it first came out. that is what im hoping for. challenge. i mean the game just came out, we dont need the casual gamer having to beat it in a year and being like…k im done lets move on the these awesome new games that are coming out in 2009 that can actually compete with wow! maybe im ranting so i apologize if u read this and figured it was a waste of your time.
By Crazytree on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 7:04 am
This was going to happen. Bliz dropped attunements for raids and keys. I am just supprized they didn’t need to gear up first. Blizzard did say that Nax was suppose to be tuned easier than Kara but I think they did make it way to easy.
By Solarious on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 8:26 am
This was bound to happen.
I mean, what do you expect? They were decked out in SWP epics that didn’t need replacement until Naxx at least, had insanely dedicated players who took a few days off the rest of life to power their way through content that was up for testing for months, with raids that had minimal attunements or keying, with raids that were stated to be beginning raid content. It’s a perfect storm of perfect preparation and foreknowledge of content phases. You can find guides and videos for everything WotLK has, literally. 90% of raiding is probably attention (hit all the buttons), preparation (know the friggin fights, and bring your consumables), and attendance. The other 10% is gear and skill, you don’t really need all that much if you can get everyone to work on the first 3 skills of raiding.
And honestly, only one or two tanks and/or healers had to be upgraded and supported to tank the bosses. DPS only has to not die, and pay attention.
By Mandie on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 8:40 am
In once since its a good thing that they tried to make everyone at an equal base which is what blizzard had stated. I didn’t even assume they would do such with the new raiding content. I can only hope that this is a “boost” so that they have the drive and motivation for the next raid to be installed with the coming of patch 3.1 and 3.2 and 3.3 with us battling the Lich King him self.
This also makes me wonder about Emerald Dream which curse said would most likely be the next xpack because of the quests we learn about the ED this pack as well as the lore behind it it would logically make since it would be next. Anywho. Whats in store for that? I am curious what the next heroic class would be I wonder if its a heroic healer? Even then would the raids be harder?
Random Brain Thoughts.
By thesebman on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 9:20 am
i only hit 70 a few weeks before TBC, and i enjoyed TBC so much i had to make a DK just to do it again, and its worth it, i just hope that northrend will give me the same pleasure. and btw love the site!
By thesebman on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 9:20 am
ooops, i meant a few weeks before WotLK xD
By Haishalud on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I think the big Difference is that when TBC came out Tier 3 was getting replaced within the first few levels. With wrath people with tier had an advantage much longer and into the final content. I thin Blizzard was trying to make the old gear not as worthless which I think is a pointless maneuver. At thee same point I know a lot of people who quit pve progression because of how hard it was and lack f good guilds. What stinks about hard end game content is that if you do not have really good friends you can’t enjoy it regardless of your skill level. I am 76 death knoght right now and can not wait to see end game raids.
By Zythen on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I think its a mix of several things… the gear didnt scale so drastically …. t7 is about = to the begining gear in nax … they were all or almost all in the beta so knew all the fights… blizzard did make the raid content more accessable to everyone so it wont be as ” hard ” … but they effectivly made a pro bowl or possibly even a ” hall of fame” equivilent to football team of players so yes they are going to crush the compitition … you cant really gage the top 0.0001 % of the pop for tuning the content.
By Karmen on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Sunwell gear is just that good. Not to mention these 3 instances were FARMED on the beta. And one of these instances was cleared in 2006…
This means strategies are widely available, and the vast majority of wow players have the gear needed to defeat them. (see huge raiding nerf pre expansion)
Anyways, if you look at the bigger picture, all that’s really happened is the bosses have been defeated. There is still ALOT to do to keep these players busy until January - Feb when the next patch comes out.
Achievements? Professions? Gearing up? PvP?
Nothing to worry about at all.
By Oggrillain on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I have to agree with most of the people hear, WTF are you going to do now that you have beaten the game? Sit in Dalaran on your epic proto-dragon and bullshit with your guildies? OOOHHH what fun!?
I want my monies worth so I plan to take my time leveling through WoLK. Most of my guildies are two lvls ahead of me but I don’t care. I enjoy playing about an hour each day, lvling my professions at the same time.
I like the idea that Blizzard should come up with an ultra-hard instance for these “professional players”. One that is damn near impossible to beat unless the moon is perfectly lined up with the stars, requiring multiply attunements just to get in and if one small mistake is made…the entire raid wipes.
By Hirah on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Way too easy. I’m taking my time for a number of reasons, but in my realm alone there’s over 3 dozen or 4 dozen level 80s already. Not even a week has passed.
The casual gamers are mid to high 70s.
Waiting all this time for the expansion to get into wait mode again a week later for patches and content updates is way wrong.
I think 1 month on casual play would have been better. Not 1 week.
By Dan on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
LOL I didn’t know all the dungeons weren’t even implemented yet. I don’t think they expected anyone to complete all this so fast so they didn’t worry about it.
Either way good for them. I’m having fun leveling and looking around at everything. I’m not to worried about getting to 80 so fast that I miss the experience of Northrend.
By ryan on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
well im 73 and i have been busting but with questing and for there to lvl 80s already!!! come on people leave your bedrooms/houses get outside not enough sun can be unhealthy for you!! take your time enjoy the game do ALL the quest so you can open new areas of the story line for the game, hell i did the wrath gate quest chain and was like OMG OMG OMG the whole time
By GrindingMadness on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I agree with the peeps that are taking their time to fully explore WOTLK and not busting their asses to reach 80 and finishing the game.For the people that finished the game, I have one thing to say “GET A LIFE”.I’m taking my time and really enjoying what Blizzard has to offer for the game.True once you get to 80 there are numerous thing to do such as :Raiding,achievements,professions etc etc.So my hats off to those that take the time and ENJOY the fruits of the game and those who speed through it,well all I can say is go play Evercrack or some other MMO.
By the way great site and looking forward to more episodes.
By Korzar on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6:45 am
I havnt even started yet! ;o
And if im even going to start, i think im gonna wait a couple of months, so everything isnt so overcrowded.
And to Nihilum or whatever, i say respect. But i also say get a life.
By elham on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 9:37 am
idc abt the high-end raiding guilds. Casual players should get the chance to finish the wotlk content too. 25th got done with it cause its a race/competition for them, not a game to enjoy.
By jhez on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I say this content is WAAAAAAY to easy. I had hit 71 in the first 2 hours of being in Northrend. Btw on my server we had a lvl 80 priest in the first 24 hours. Blizz made it too easy.
By Rob on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I guess I don’t really mind that they beat it already. There’s a bunch of raid content still to be released and I’m sure the difficulty will jump. The fact that they all knew the fight from beta helped quite a bit.
As for me and my 71 priest (yes, I’m only 71 at this point), I’ll continue to level at my own pace. I’m not in a race. Got too much going on in RL to be able to dedicate so much time to WoW. Also, I won’t burn out as quickly if I take my time.
Kudos to 25th. Unfortunately, I get the strange feeling most of them will quit prior to the next expansion. Too bad but that’s just the way life goes sometimes.
By Dora on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Well - im in a semi hardcore raiding guild (casual), and some of us has been powerleveling to 80,some of us hasnt,our first Naxx raid is set to 29th december …casual. Its impressive that theyve (Nihilum) cleared everything currently available,grats i suppose,its their way to do this.
Wont affect my gamingexperience tho,as im taking my time to 80,trying to clear every area/quest achievement in WoTLK,just finished Howling Fjord,currently in BT.
Oh and on topic again - I dont think its THAT much easier,the way theyre treating WoW is just insane + theyve probably got stuff to do elsewhere (Promotion&presslol)
To sum it up - I dont really care (well i cared enough to answer this) about Nihilum & SK Gaming(Curse) …theyve got ppl doing that already.
Dora
Arathor-EU
By mark on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
i heard one guy hit 80 in under 22 hours after it came out.