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. Chrysopoeia's Avatar
    It's not a world first. It's a first kill for STARS. They don't fight to ANYONE at the moment, wtf is the point?
  1. mmocb1cd44d5cd's Avatar
    Good on them. you know why its fair? because everyone is able to do it. Obviously they just wanted it more than others.
  1. hawtlol's Avatar
    Remember when Stars flipped out about Paragon stacking ferals on Nef. Lol at them.
  1. fierceangel's Avatar
    This isn't exploiting anything, the raid reset on faction change has been there since day one and Blizzard have never done anything about it. So Stars can just argue that they all decided to faction change to improve their gameplay, or whatever. It would be Blizzard in the wrong if they banned them for doing this.
  1. syiforce's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ShiroRX View Post
    pissing other players off = less money.
    You do know they've already lost 700,000 people these pass few months, from just being blizzard.
    So actually they're gaining from that loss. They won't care.
  1. rhorle's Avatar
    Aren't guild names limited to one per server and not one per faction? Because if some of them faction changed then they wouldn't be Stars anymore so technically they didn't get it.
  1. good diu bro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ShiroRX View Post
    remember when stars used to whine cause they didn't get bosses as early as the west players?
    This is still true, they dont have PTR and their server update at Thursday. However if they have the money to do that, it wont be surprising they have a secret "low key" US account.
  1. Paux_Like_Poe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tserak View Post
    Good on them. you know why its fair? because everyone is able to do it. Obviously they just wanted it more than others.
    And this is why this argument is moot and pointless. Don't pout because you didn't think of it first, it's very childish.
  1. Nyne's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Chiasmus View Post
    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.
    well same with nefarian 123123 cat druid paragon kill
    bliizard hotfix it next day.
  1. Dancing Monkey's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ausr View Post
    I believe in the ToA or Eula that there is a rule against this kind of thing. And reading the faction change features, it isn't supposed to reset raid lock outs. I'd be very surprised if they don't get some sort of punishment.
    You believe wrong.

    Working at intended, and it is still the same thing guilds did when Lich King was released in ICC. You could faction change or server change, and get another 50 attempts in at it.

    I applaud this guild for taking the initiative, though who cares about world firsts, and who cares about how wowprogress ranks guilds?

    I mean really, let's get some perspective.
  1. muto's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rhorle View Post
    Aren't guild names limited to one per server and not one per faction? Because if some of them faction changed then they wouldn't be Stars anymore so technically they didn't get it.
    Ya lets get all exacto up in here. It was players from the guild Stars that got the kill therefore Stars got the kill. Get it?


    OT: Congrats to Stars, they want world 1sts and they are obviously showing they will do what it takes legally to get them. This isn't against the rules in my opinion.
  1. TheOccidio's Avatar
    If blizzard allows these kills to stand as world firsts then it's pretty fucking pathetic.
  1. Chrysopoeia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nyne View Post
    well same with nefarian 123123 cat druid paragon kill
    bliizard hotfix it next day.
    because it was too hard yes.. lol
    Killing something that is "too hard" is amazing.. Doing like STARS now - not cool!
  1. Zoma's Avatar
    Gratz to STARS, you are technically the first guild to kill H Shannox. Of course, if you get banned, you can probably kiss 'world first' on the other bosses good bye.
  1. Uselessrouge's Avatar
    i love them for doing it
  1. rhorle's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by muto View Post
    Ya lets get all exacto up in here. It was players from the guild Stars that got the kill therefore Stars got the kill. Get it?
    And yet All of Ensidia's kills aren't labeled as their past guild names just because they contain the same players. So the guild does matter and it isn't something that can be just brushed off. In the realm of world firsts, names and stuff matters.
  1. Chiasmus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tserak View Post
    Good on them. you know why its fair? because everyone is able to do it. Obviously they just wanted it more than others.
    True, but unfortunately for them no one who actually matters will consider their kill a world first. By paying to beat the competition, they're openly stating they feel they couldn't compete on fair ground, and had to resort to buying their way to the top. No one in the top tier community is interested in a guild who can't win through their own merit; reputation and integrity are far more important than a 'world first' which no one else attempted to attain. What the generally illiterate and ignorant posters of MMO-Champion think doesn't matter to the people in top guilds. They are the ones directly affected by this, they are the people whose opinion matters.
  1. starkey's Avatar
    I hope they get too keep it, i love seeing people getting butt hurt over it
  1. Chiasmus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nyne View Post
    well same with nefarian 123123 cat druid paragon kill
    bliizard hotfix it next day.
    Paragon took full advantage of their roster, there's no rule to say what composition you may take to a raid. You cannot under any circumstance call that an exploit unless you're totally clueless of what the word means.
  1. Xathiann's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sangriaa View Post
    I hope something happens to Stars, I mean... come on... get it fair and square, don't cheat the system.
    Ensidia did the same thing twice in WotLK, and everyone cheered and stood behind them. Fucking hypocrite.

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