Stars (TW - Crystalpine Stinger) already working on Firelands Heroic - Shannox World First Kill
A lot of guilds killed all the bosses of the Firelands raid in normal mode already but it seems that Stars (TW - Crystalpine Stinger) decided to take it one step further.

After clearing the encounters in normal mode, the entire raid changed faction to reset their raid ID and started working on heroic encounters shortly after, that kind of thing happened in the past and it's not really surprising to see it used again to grab first kills.

As I write these lines, Stars killed Shannox in Heroic Mode. It's not really my place to judge if something is against the rules or not and I will just keep tracking heroic first kills as they happen.



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Eternal Embers and Seething Cinders Droprates
You’re assuming the drop chances for embers averages out to .5 per boss in 10’s and 2 per boss in 25’s, which it doesn’t. Whether you’re in 10’s or 25’s you’re going to see an equal drop average for Eternal Embers per player, and the same can be said for Seething Cinders. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

New Content - Differences between PvE and PvP Players
The answer to your question revolves around a common difference in how PvE players and PvP players approach the game. Generally speaking, PvE players want more quests, more dungeons and more raids to experience -- more and new content is king. On the other hand, while some PvP players do want new maps, many others would be happier if we perfected the Arena or BG maps that already exist - or even if we cut existing maps. After all, PvP players don’t graduate out of Arathi Basin or Dalaran sewers the same way PvE players graduate from dungeon to heroic, or raid tier to raid tier. We did make some improvements to the existing PvP maps, such as trying to return Ring of Valor to circulation and changing the way flags work in Eye of the Storm (for rated play).

We’d love to add a lot more maps than we currently do, but we need to do it in such a way that doesn’t make the PvP experience worse for players who are more interested in refining their PvP experience than in seeing new maps. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 4.2 Hairstyles
We had a bunch of hairstyles we threw in for testing on the PTR and the majority of them did not pass the test. (quality, art direction, bugs, etc.) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 4.0 Raids now puggable
We specifically intend for the 4.0 raids to be puggable now that Firelands is out. Grabbing some tier 11 by way of Justice, quest rewards, plus across the board difficulty nerfs should really be enough to get them going.

The patch has only been out a day or so though. I think it'll probably take a little bit before people really get it into their heads that they should be pugging the previous tier because it's not too hard to be successful. It's just getting people used to the various encounters and mechanics.

Maybe people are waiting for the holiday weekend? If nothing else, leading one yourself is always an option. I think we'd agree that we need some better ways to get pug raids together considering we intend to follow the "New Raid is Hard, old Tier is Puggable" format from here on.

Still unsure what that means regarding the final raid (i.e. Deathwing). Do pugs not get to see him until the next expansion is released? (Not saying whether that's a good thing or not, but personally I enjoyed getting to Arthas on some of my alts without spending near as much time as I did on my main.)
In ICC we had a stacking raid buff over time which gradually made the content easier. Not saying we’ll do that exact thing again but the philosophy was around even then that everyone who wants to can eventually see the content, but it’s going to take very organized groups (which typically means raiding guilds) to see the encounters first.

So casuals will constantly be a tier behind for the rest of the life of this game? If that is what is actually coming out of your mouth I'll save myself the time and unsub now. What a piss poor vision for your game. There are normal and heroic versions of raids for a reason. That heroic difficulty was implemented so that the two segments of the population (casual and hardcore) would both have something to do. You are now bifurcating the raiding population AGAIN, by telling casuals that they have to run around in the left overs.
Trying to label all of our players as “casual puggers” vs.” hardcore raiders” is ridiculously simplistic. Among raiders there is an enormous diversity of players. There are those who will raid virtually every night when new content is out, to guilds that raid once a week (and even then will cancel raid nights fairly commonly). If you must try to label raiders, you’d be closer to the Blizzard model if you said normal mode is for organized raids, heroic mode is for more hardcore organized raids, and the previous tier of content (and Baradin Hold) is targeted for pick-up groups. Also consider that even within a raid zone we try to design easier bosses (usually near the front) and more challenging ones (usually at the end) which can help blur those lines and offer smoother transitions for each category.

Overall, we think you’ll have a better experience playing World of Warcraft if you play with friends, either existing or those you meet in game. WoW, while much more solo friendly than most older MMO games, is still intended as a multiplayer game. We provide features like Dungeon Finder for when playing with friends isn’t possible, and as we said above, we’d like to offer more features like that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Tabards Tab
Are there any considerations for a tab for your tabards?
Yes!

[...] To clarify: he asked if we were considering it, and yes we are considering it. :) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Keyring Removal
On a serious point though some people are upset about the removal of the key ring. While that seems like we're just taking it out to be bullies, it specifically frees up storage space we can then make into useful features. Not that it will specifically be used for 'tabard storage', but we are going to be using the space the removal of the key ring freed up. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Thrall and Aggra's "wedding"
Correct. Their pledging of their lives to one another was essentially their 'wedding', although I'm sure Orcs don't use such nomenclature to refer to these things. Maybe 'life bond' fits better. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Does Blizzard plan on adding the rest of the dungeons and raids to the Dungeon Journal?
Absolutely. With the time it takes to present a single boss in the Dungeon Journal we were only confident supplying Cataclysm content with the release of the feature in 4.2, but we are on a path to filling it out with all dungeons and raids in the entire game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Steam Summer Sales
In a very, very, very unrelated sidenote, Steam Summer Sales are up. I don't usually news non-WoW stuff but ... well, I like Valve and I'm pretty sure a lot of people will be happy to hear the news. Also, don't forget that we have a Video Games Forum!
This article was originally published in forum thread: Stars Heroic Shannox World First Kill, Blue Posts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 622 Comments
  1. mmoc69774f76f5's Avatar
    Oh c'mon they didn't deserve the world's first.
  1. mmoc3c07c2f0e9's Avatar
    all the guildes should do the same (all blizzard's stakeholders agree with me) lolilol
  1. Nozyk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ciscokidd12 View Post
    So they got one kill early. Next week when it resets and they just happen to get the first kill time wise still would be first. This whole situation is funny, other top ranked guilds have done worse than this(oozeling, Saronite bombs, stacking druids, leaving people in brain room, etc, etc) and didn't get this much QQ. They didn't do anything that lessened the kill mechanic wise.
    You're right, the other guilds got MORE.
  1. Pagmat's Avatar
    Have lost respect for stars. They went to such efforts for what will not be considered a first. Gg
  1. wildwind's Avatar
    Just shows what people will do for fame. Many people seem to think it is ok because 1. they use an in-game service 2. other guilds can do this, too
    This is NOT the first time it happened. And the first incident leads to WOWProgress announced such method will result in the kill NOT being counted.
    Given this history, nobody has tried this since.
    And now this.
    Stars is risking their reputation and their chance at WOWProgress standings.
    Very reckless move caused by blind ambition to be the top guild in the world.
    And in doing so, it just shows they are NOT the top guild.
  1. freelapdance's Avatar
    To be honest that shows dedication. Seriously kudos to them. Lets face it that is hilarious
  1. ashblond's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by lopk View Post
    Why would they be banned? I understand what they still was...uh...dishonorable I guess, but it's not an exploit. It's not shady at all. Blizzard should have been able to see this coming.

    EDIT: It's called hardcore raiding for a reason. If you want to be the very best, you've got to use the resources available to you.
    Dont bring the thing to a level of honor or dishonor, it is just a game. And any paid customers are entitled to play the game as they want to, as long as they dont break laws or any blizzard rules. Stars just did the thing they think they should do, same as all other players that play the game as they want to.

    Solution: giving all players the PTR and sorting out this raid ID lockout problem.
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tidders View Post
    How exactly is it an exploit? It's a PAID SERVICE which Blizzard openly promotes and everyone is welcome to use it if they wish, if you don't have the money then I guess that's tough shit. If Blizzard don't like this particular situation then it's a design failure, not a user failure - at the end of the day, STARS paid their money.

    I take my hat off to STARS on a job well done, and after Blizzards intervention I would request a refund for everyone and a free faction xfer as they've done nothing wrong.
    That's not really the point. Nobody can do this on the EU or US servers. Meaning ALL of the worlds best guilds in those regions will have to wait until Tuesday/Wednesday to even start on HC progress. Even if Paragon, Vodka, ect WANTED to transfer, it would carry their raid ID over too.
  1. Rioo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasz View Post
    I don't think anyone should be able to gain an advantage over anyone else by paying real money, especially the race for world first.
    It's as simple as this. I don't count this as a WF.
  1. Balo's Avatar
    All this Paragon fan boy rage is so yummy
  1. osatox's Avatar
    Honestly, whenever Blizzard releases new raid content for these world-class hardcore guilds to tackle on, they really should do the following (in my opinion): 1) Not put the raid up on the PTR. Blizzard has QA testers, but they are not really using them for raiding purposes, and not thinking outside the box about it. Sure PTR testing allows players to get a 'sneak preview', and also allows Blizzard to gather information on their encounters, of being under or overtuned. Putting stuff up on the PTR for players, in my personal opinion, is like a game company putting their "demo" out but the entire game is unlocked. The hardcore guilds that get on the PTR for the raid tests exclusively get the inside-strategies figured out and already have huge advantages on understanding and knowing the encounter. Now with Blizzard introducing the "Dungeon Journal", really shouldn't need players to "test" then, but use your internal QA team. 2) Instead of requiring to have to clear the instance on normal mode first, why not just allow the players, should they really want to, toggle to Heroic mode already? Allowing all players access to normal & heroic is still equal and fair for these "world first" races.
  1. mmocafc46af0bb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ciscokidd12 View Post
    So they got one kill early. Next week when it resets and they just happen to get the first kill time wise still would be first. This whole situation is funny, other top ranked guilds have done worse than this(oozeling, Saronite bombs, stacking druids, leaving people in brain room, etc, etc) and didn't get this much QQ. They didn't do anything that lessened the kill mechanic wise.
    Can we get a sticky up whenever a new progress race starts explaining that SARONITE BOMBS WERE PART OF THE MIN MAX DPS ROGUE ROTATION FOR THE WHOLE OF ICC YOU MOUTHBREATHING TERRIBADS?

    Thanks
  1. Slavemaker's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by discombobulate View Post
    everyone had the option to do so. and blizz sells ingame shit for real life money now. buying a world first is perfectly acceptable. they should be allowed to clear the whole thing, if one follows the rules blizz and bobby knotik have laid down.
    This is true, everyone does have the option to do so as far as I know, nothing wrong with it...

    It may be considered a little "cheap" but nothing wrong with it.... Honestly though who are we to judge what other guilds do? I don't see you raiding in a top guild doing firelands all day until the bosses are down, getting world firsts and crap.... Stop whining and enjoy people having fun with the game.
  1. Waniou's Avatar
    I think what I'm finding the saddest here is how many people are like "Since when was using RL money to get an in game advantage a bad thing?"
  1. mmocb1848b600a's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alianthos View Post
    the rage in this thread is delicious.
    A famous WoW-Quote comes to mind: "Despair, so delicious." ^^
  1. ashblond's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Brett Skullcrack View Post
    Yes it's Blizzard's fault for not closing that obvious bug before, but that doesn't make it any more valid for Stars to exploit that bug. Stars used to be the "guys who do really well despite being at a big disadvantage", but now they're just "those guys who cheat". If I was in Stars I'd be pissed off that whoever made that decision disqualified me from the whole T12 race and I'd be looking for a new guild.
    Talking about fairness, they dont even have PTR. And TW servers weekly maintanance later than EU servers, let alone US servers.

    If you are in a cutting-edge raiding guild like Stars that competes world first by seconds and minutes, you are already in a huge disadvantage.

    Tbh, i think Stars used a very clever mechanism to overcome the the disadvantage.

    Since they have downed the 1st heroic boss on the 1st day of Patch 4.2 on TW server, I think Stars are pretty aware that others competitors ( Paragon, Methold, Ensidia, etc.. ) would kill it within a day after next week's rest too.

    If they dont faction change, they know they will certainly lose the world first, if they do, they will be blamed for cheating.. lol poor Stars
  1. Ciscokidd12's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Burnzhandofadal View Post
    Can we get a sticky up whenever a new progress race starts explaining that SARONITE BOMBS WERE PART OF THE MIN MAX DPS ROGUE ROTATION FOR THE WHOLE OF ICC YOU MOUTHBREATHING TERRIBADS?

    Thanks
    Lol ragemuch? I know that I was just using that as an example of people who got world first thru not so wholesome means(They saw that the platforms where staying and still called it a first). Learn basic association before you try to pick a fight.
  1. Brett Skullcrack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ashblond View Post
    Talking about fairness, they dont even have PTR. And TW servers weekly maintanance later than EU servers, let alone US servers.

    If you are in a cutting-edge raiding guild like Stars that competes world first by seconds and minutes, you are already in a huge disadvantage.
    Which is exactly why I held STARS in such high regard before. They did really well considering all the huge disadvantages. Now they're just cheaters and I couldn't care less what or when they kill. The real HC race starts next week and STARS are sadly disqualified from it.

    If they dont faction change, they know they will certainly lose the world first, if they do, they will be blamed for cheating.. lol poor Stars
    They lost all legitimacy for their T12 race by cheating, and they lost their credibility in the eyes of many people. Being in TW servers puts them at great disadvantage, but cheating is still not an acceptable solution.
  1. Geomatician's Avatar
    Grats to Stars' Alts.
  1. chase_the_mofo's Avatar
    This is .............I don't know, I know I will get ban for this but I don't care.
    Game ruining. Retarded.

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