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. t0pik0's Avatar
    a complete joke..
  1. Valizix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by adamzz View Post
    If you faction change in the US or the EU your raid ID won't get reset, which means that this is an error in design and/or "program bug".They didn't earn this kill as they used an exploit to get it.
    This is absolutely incorrect, any time I have faction changed my raid ID's are always reset. Lets try and keep misinformation to as little as possible.
  1. Oznob's Avatar
    ATTENTION EVERYONE: The future called and said that this and all other World of Warcraft World first kills, from the beginning of the game, until now and beyond, mean about as much as who won the 1982 World Tournament of Pac Man the arcade game, in the grand skeem of humanity.
  1. Razorice's Avatar
    I wouldn't blame Stars (Ofc I don't like what they did) They just used the faction change to reset their raid id. if anyone is to blame of this disadvantage is Blizzard for not thinking it through to be honest
  1. Paux_Like_Poe's Avatar
    Never has "Clever use of game mechanics" been more apt. Grats to stars.
  1. Drithien's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by parabol23 View Post
    I promise you they won't care, even if it's not acknowledged they'll know they had world 1st, and im sure they are quite proud lol
    Why would they be proud of such a thing. Being first implies that there is a competition of more than one. In this case there is no such thing. So, they came first while playing against...nobody. Hardly a thing to be proud of, and certainly not a competition.

    Personally I do not care much about these "competitions" anyway, since they are unfair to the various guilds the way things are right now. Guilds don't get the chance to start playing at the same time since the patch is applied at different times at different zones, Some realms may have problems at the beginning of a patch or even for days or weeks after etc, and there are no specific rules, like players playing with just one character and not alts etc.

    I don't think that this is an exploit but it is a wrong move at the same time, it is just unfair and out of the spirit of the "competition" of world firsts.
  1. Yanzina's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Drithiend View Post
    Why would they be proud of such a thing. Being first implies that there is a competition of more than one. In this case there is no such thing. So, they came first while playing against...nobody. Hardly a thing to be proud of, and certainly not a competition.

    Personally I do not care much about these "competitions" anyway, since they are unfair to the various guilds the way things are right now. Guilds don't get the chance to start playing at the same time since the patch is applied at different times at different zones, Some realms may have problems at the beginning of a patch or even for days or weeks after etc, and there are no specific rules, like players playing with just one character and not alts etc.

    I don't think that this is an exploit but it is a wrong move at the same time, it is just unethical and out of the spirit of the "competition" of world firsts.
    Any guild could have done this, it's like paragon's kill on nef. They thought of it and got it.
  1. Razorice's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Yanzina View Post
    Any guild could have done this, it's like paragon's kill on nef. They thought of it and got it.
    exept that they didn't pay real money for it, they just used class OP'ness.
  1. Morningsan's Avatar
    Its clearly a not an intended thing since blizzard already fixed the thing about changing server/battlegroup to reset raid id. So since its clearly a bug it should be considered an exploit. Ofc u can call it clever use of game mechanic but since its an none intended thing (by blizzard) it should be called an exploit
  1. mmocef71e99c15's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by twilightsamus View Post
    Blizzard's not going to consider it exploiting if the exploit (faction transfers) just netted them $750+.
    Yeah, because $750 matter soooo much to Blizzard...

    Dude, you really think that if Blizzard thinks this is bad for the game they would say "oh but we made a few hundred bucks, we really need those dollars..."

    Hilarious.
  1. Khalkaroth's Avatar
    I don't see what all the fuss is about with stars, we'll just put an asterisk next to their name stating "used the faction transfer feature to clear their raid ID"

    They could have pushed it even further by competioning with all the guilds in the world for the world firsts, but they decided to cut the opposition in half, therfore reducing their kills' recongnition.

    But I can't blame them: I would probably have done the same thing if I had the guild.
  1. Chiasmus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Paux_Like_Poe View Post
    Never has "Clever use of game mechanics" been more apt. Grats to stars.
    Don't be ignorant, microtransactions are not game mechanics. Using a paid service to gain access to something that should not be available until the next raiding week is not its intention. This is highlighted by several statements and actions by Blizzard:


    • Paid services offer vanity, or otherwise non-advantageous bonuses for players. Anything that provides an in-game advantage to one player over another who doesn't pay for such a service is not offered by Blizzard. Assuming quite reasonably that this is still their view, faction changing to reset your raid lockout only be seen as a non-intentional violation of Blizzard's own policy, given it allows you to bypass the whole purpose of the raid lockout system.


    • After Ensidia server transferred during Trial of the Grand Crusader progression, Blizzard changed it so that raid lockouts were no longer reset when doing so. This can only have been done to prevent more guilds from transferring to buy an additional fifty attempts.


    • Stars were removed from the raid shortly after killing heroic Shannox, presumably after Blizzard noticed and realised what they were doing. If Blizzard thought this to be an acceptable way to behave, they would not have done anything.


    • Blizzard also took down the Taiwanese Battle Net faction transfer system for 'emergency maintenance', it's far too much of a coincidence for this to not be related to what has happened.
  1. Yanzina's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Razorice View Post
    exept that they didn't pay real money for it, they just used class OP'ness.
    So what? Any guild could have used OP classes as well as any guild could have paid money.
    Kills are kills.
    People said they were "Bugging" or "exploiting it" How is this any different?
  1. sluggs's Avatar
    There is a reason why blizzard has locked out stars of progression. They did not want this to happen.

    though it is a legit kill so grats
  1. Nyne's Avatar
    awesome kill , gratz stars #1 guild get shit on paragon

    ---------- Post added 2011-06-30 at 11:55 PM ----------

    ps : who ares about wow progress? guidox is way better
  1. Sarevokcz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Khalkaroth View Post
    I don't see what all the fuss is about with stars, we'll just put an asterisk next to their name stating "used the faction transfer feature to clear their raid ID"

    They could have pushed it even further by competioning with all the guilds in the world for the world firsts, but they decided to cut the opposition in half, therfore reducing their kills' recongnition.

    But I can't blame them: I would probably have done the same thing if I had the guild.
    On one hand, it cost them a small fortune, so it paid off.

    On the other hand, if Blizzard is okay with this, what stops them from putting an ingame Raid ID reset for XX bucks per person? Thats just not right IMO. It basically already is paying for getting in game advantage over the others, something old Blizzard didnt approve of at all.

    Oh well, unless I see loot removed and several days of ban, I suspect we are heading towards more and more extra transactions for more basic stuff. Maybe next patch we will have to pay extra for getting inside the new raid?
  1. pateuvasiliu's Avatar
    Is it safe to say they BOUGHT a world first
  1. nitrizzle's Avatar
    XD mfw nobody cares that stars did it because they have always been the "good guys", yet when Adept did their 4 day raid camp the week togc came out and did the EXACT same thing (inspiring the raid id wipe upon server change rule) every keyboard warrior was waving their pitchforks in the air over it.

    Anyway isnt the raid id clear on faction change there to stop both horde and alliance groups being inthe same instance at the same time?

    Stars have basically shot themselves in the foot here. If they get world first rag, they cheated. If they don't they will forever be ridiculed as the guild who cheated and still couldn't win.
  1. mmoc6bff638b3f's Avatar
    OK an HC kill is worth mentioning but truth to be told the firsts bosses of every new tier always go down quite fast even on HC, it's a matter of having your realm up and running and trying it first, even with 1 week in advance I wouldn't be surprise if STARS got stuck somewhere along the race and another US or EU guild pass them.
  1. Scuravolpe's Avatar
    The funny thing about Stars' exploiting here is that it's completely unnecessary. No one else will be able to kill the heroic version this week either, so they could still be first next week. It's pointlessly tempting the banhammer.

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