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. zekiel218's Avatar
    I don't think you guys get the point. They did not gain any real advantages over this exploit, they are just doing the same of what US and EU servers guilds have been doing all these years: Getting head start before everyone else can. If someone get world first in US server, there is nothing special about it due to the nature that US servers always up first while EU and Taiwan servers still waiting for the maintenance. If you guys view this as unfair for those on US and EU, think about how was it fair for them when you got your world first and they still waiting for their server to get back up.

    We should change the way how we find out who got the world first by comparing their kill time with the server up time, rather than who actually kill the boss first.
  1. Lamperouqe's Avatar
    Intentionally using a loophole in the system is not fair play, be it an action to get banned for or not. I don't really know the guild that well but thinking back on the threads they've made in the past I really don't consider Stars a good sport.
  1. Wizzlecrank's Avatar
    That's hilarious if they really got kicked out of the raid.
  1. Dragaan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Wierd View Post
    Yes indeed.
    You're right. They killed a heroic boss quickly so grats to them. But they're "world first" out of only 1 guild. Whoever kills it w/o transferring will be world first out of thousands. Get it? Simply KILLING these heroics bosses is no big feat for any of the top guilds. Of course they're going to kill them...and they're going to kill them fast.

    The only reason stars did this is because they knew they probably couldn't beat a few of the other top guilds out there. They wanted to have the earliest kill no matter what. Now everyone will look down upon them because of it. Grats.
  1. Theronus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Wrathbaby View Post
    Clever use of game mechanics, keep the tears flowing
    Working as intended.
  1. Maruka's Avatar
    Well they got removed from the instance and banned, so that takes care of that.
  1. Comrade1182's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zekiel218 View Post
    They did not gain any real advantages over this exploit.
    Only the safety net of an entire week to wipe if the encounter proved to be difficult, nothing much yep.
  1. Kujja's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Licarius View Post
    Stars didn't exploit the fight itself like Ensidia with Saronite Bombs. did they exploit the world first race? yes. what they did was NOT illegal, and no they shouldn't get banned. BUT, as a top10 guild they've just ruined their reputation and any respect people may have had for them. Grats on the kill!!!! but, shame on the way you got it.....
    There's no way of telling if Ensidia exploited Lich King on purpose or not as most hardcore raiders used Saronite Bombs to increase their dps - so if it was accidental then there would of been no way of telling if it was the bombs causing the platform to respawn or something else.
    Also Blizzard fixed the faction change resetting lockouts a while ago, so it wasn't intended.. apparently the "fix" was broken in a recent patch (mb 4.2?) so it's definitely an exploit and imo they should be banned for it as it's 100% clear they faction changed to reset the lockout and it wasn't clear that Ensidia purposely exploited LK at all.
  1. Wizleaf's Avatar
    Enigma in Deathwing realm was world first stars don't count
  1. adamzz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zekiel218 View Post
    I don't think you guys get the point. They did not gain any real advantages over this exploit, they are just doing the same of what US and EU servers guilds have been doing all these years: Getting head start before everyone else can. If someone get world first in US server, there is nothing special about it due to the nature that US servers always up first while EU and Taiwan servers still waiting for the maintenance. If you guys view this as unfair for those on US and EU, think about how was it fair for them when you got your world first and they still waiting for their server to get back up.

    We should change the way how we find out who got the world first by comparing their kill time with the server up time, rather than who actually kill the boss first.
    You are comparing a one-day headstart with a one-week headstart, it's a really retarded comparison and you should be ashamed by even trying to defend STARS.
  1. Yeorgaki'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.
    Who the fuck said it was a race?? I'm mad lost right now, at the start of every season tens of thousands transfer to reset arena point caps 2-3 times to get extra points, NO ONE ever seemed to care about that. Why should it be different for pve? world first hurpadurps
  1. MitsuAS's Avatar
    After the shit they have given other guilds, this is disappointing, defend them as you will, im not a fan of other exploits that guilds have used, similar exploits like this in the past were frowned upon, why should this be different, meh w/e all i care about is my guild in the end. Just seems so unsportsmanlike to get a one week head start when game mechanics are in place to prevent this obivious exploit even if there wasnt anything in place to block it. but i gess thats how these guilds work anything and everything to win dignity doesnt matter to them
  1. Aleom's Avatar
    Well they got removed from the instance and banned, so that takes care of that.
    Care to share the proof of this claim?
  1. adamzz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Yeorgaki View Post
    Who the fuck said it was a race?? I'm mad lost right now, at the start of every season tens of thousands transfer to reset arena point caps 2-3 times to get extra points, NO ONE ever seemed to care about that. Why should it be different for pve? world first hurpadurps
    There wasn't an "Arena Point Cap" that was removed by using paid transfer before (is it even removed now?). At the old days your arena points where gained once every week and how much you got was calculated by how much rating you had, using a transfer would lower your rating and would be retarded.

    Also, this thread is about PvE take your PvP minigame to another thread.
  1. brosephbro's Avatar
    considering that transferred players can't get world firsts achievements (rag being the one of note here) for 2 months after transferring, does anyone REALLY care that much? world first shannox? world first loot pinata? they screwed themselves over for Rag and they don't even realize. and I'm confident they'd have the ability to get Rag heroic world first.
  1. XeroFour's Avatar
    We learned of Stars doing this within 20 mins of them faction transferring and an agreement was made on IRC between us, Paragon and some other top guilds that we would not use this tactic and wait for a fair race next week.They won't be listed on wowprogress for these kills so they are out of the race as far as the other top guilds are concerned. The problem comes if they get their kill(s) removed but are still able to compete legitimately next week. They will have a lot more heroic experience than the rest of us and so still be at an advantage. If they are allowed to keep their gear they will have an even bigger advantage.It's funny because of the whole storm Stars kicked up over our atramedes kill, accusing us of using an exploit we didn't even know about (LoSing the modulation) and concluding by telling us to 'fight with honour'. The level they have stooped to here is about as dishonourable as you can get.
  1. zechs999'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.
    consider about fair, why blz dont make it fair on update time of the world.
    if TW server is always behind the world, it means they can hardly get chance to make first kiss.
    no fair on the first kiss between different server like this.
    quote your sentence, come on get it fair, don't cheat the player.
  1. Shadowdoom's Avatar
    I think Stars just crossed the line here. Start raiding ahead since the server came up like Enigma is acceptable since they can gather 25 people and raid in the afternoon of Tuesday, but faction change WTH ?? Just wow. If Blizz ignore this and do nothing, not even at least fixing the raid lock, this might be another trend for hardcore raiding guild in the future patch, which will be really really bad imo.
  1. Ghash's Avatar
    I'm reading all of these rage comments about how it's sooo unfair that they got the kill this way and I can't help but wonder how many of them were actually in the running for this race anyway. Seriously, if you weren't one of the guilds that finished normals and were ready to head into heroics next week, why the hell do you care?
  1. Kisuro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maruka View Post
    Well they got removed from the instance and banned, so that takes care of that.
    Any source on that? I'm curious, because I'd actually like for that to be true.

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