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. Zetsu727's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by godofslack View Post
    Why do people still think Paragon tested content for Blizzard that wasn't open to everyone else? THAT WAS AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE. Don't believe me? Look at the original post, and then read the dungeon journal. You will realize that it isn't the fight the listed. Probably can't do that so here's the link: http://www.paragon.fi/articles/sneak...naros-firelord there you go.
    I don't go to Paragon's website, I'm speaking off what I've read off forums. Even if that is incorrect, it's nothing more than a bad example on my part. The fact still remains Blizzard creates these situations, does not test new content thoroughly enough, and spends their time working on useless things like new haircuts at the barbershop and /roar emotes than prevent these situations from happening. Those are facts.
  1. TheFNK's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rafy View Post
    no it doesn't fall under that.
    the didn't gain advantage over other players without others being able to do the same.
    that means you can do the same.
    every guild can do the same.
    it's not exploiting, hacking, etc. w/e you want to call it.
    They can just simply say: "hey we just decided to change factions because we like X better than Y."
    Deal with it and stop crying.
    Pretty sure most of you didn't even down 2-3 bosses anyway...
    Actually it's arguable that nearly EVERY exploit could be repeatable by people other than the exploiters.

    Archimonde Stump? Hey not an exploit. Everyone can do it!

    Disgusting Oozelings? Again totally fine.

    Pretty sure they all didn't accidentally change factions. At the same time. Then reformed and started raiding. It's an exploit and angrily lashing out won't change that.
  1. Brett Skullcrack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rafy View Post
    no it doesn't fall under that.
    the didn't gain advantage over other players without others being able to do the same.
    that means you can do the same.
    every guild can do the same.
    By that definition nothing would be exploiting, because if you can exploit something I can exploit it too. Every guild from #1 to #10000 knows you can reset your lockouts by transferring, the difference is that other guilds fight with honor while STARS chose to cheat and disqualify themselves from the T12 race. They should kick whoever made this decision, take a summer break, and hope to get some legitimate kills in T13 because honestly everything they do in T12 now will be tainted.
  1. Barrowwind's Avatar
    Saranite bombs anyone
  1. tntmax's Avatar
    Out of interest, what is Stars homepage? (stars-guild.com gives a 404, and google barely gives a correct hit)
  1. mmoc2f0222e775's Avatar
    Gratz Stars, if you can kill him then you earned it. Other people are just mad because they didn't think of it lol
  1. godofslack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zetsu727 View Post
    I don't go to Paragon's website, I'm speaking off what I've read off forums. Even if that is incorrect, it's nothing more than a bad example on my part. The fact still remains Blizzard creates these situations, does not test new content thoroughly enough, and spends their time working on useless things like new haircuts at the barbershop and /roar emotes than prevent these situations from happening. Those are facts.
    What you misunderstand completely. It's not the same people who are putting those "useless" things in that are responsible for encounter design. Do you honestly believe that they benched people from Firelands design to make the new /roar emotes?!? Not everyone is Chris Metzen!
  1. mmoc22c13808b6's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Snakebonzai! View Post
    I can't see what's fun in doing a world first without competition. (And don't tell me there was competition.The only guild who had their raid reset was Stars.)
    Agree 100% to that!

    To summarize all inputs here is.. you yourself decide wheter or not this is world fist.
    I personally dont count it since i am a "sportsman", but if any of you feel to consider it a world first thats fine.
    My guess is that the genral opinion is not world first. I hope they get their raid id reset and let into the game asap so they can clear normal mode and next wednesday can go on with heroic version again and set new world first if they manage that.
  1. Asaliah's Avatar
    One more proof that Asia rules the world
    GG to them, just for the concept !!!
  1. abracadabro's Avatar
    Blizzard will never ban Stars before they race change back to horde, thats a plus ~750$ guys )
  1. Profanity101's Avatar
    In my opinion it was wrong for them to do it. But, I feel they should not get banned for it. And it sounds like Blizzard stopped them from killing any more bosses anyway.
  1. mmoc18c7f96e5b's Avatar
    Only reason why you should care about this is because of the kill video will make no sense to you as it is all in TW.

    Only thing you will see if a lot of swirly letters and some numbers, but that is about it.

    But really, it might not be breaking any WoW rules, but fair play, wtf.
  1. runeb1980@hotmail.com's Avatar
    Honestly, who gives a crap, do you guys play the game to impress other people, or to have fun? If your answer is the first - you need to get a life, bigtime.
  1. slimj091's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dascylus View Post
    It falls under "obtaining a competitive advantage over other players" in the EULA. Or in other words, exploiting, which can oftentimes result in permanent account suspension based on the severity of the exploit taking place. The fact that these actions were premeditated won't help their case with Blizzard's customer support staff. You can say you were testing the encounters as much as you want, but the straight facts is you did something with the full intent on gaining a competitive advantage over other players and maximum punishment should be expected.
    as much as i think what they did was idiotic. the only competitive advantage they had over other players is on a ranking table on 3rd party websites that track and stroke their epeens over this stuff. unless the server they are on is very competitive for server first kills, then they would have had an advantage over other players in game. however who knows.. people and guilds have been banned for less. mostly though permanent suspensions are only handed out to repeat offenders. or gold sellers.
  1. dotsown's Avatar
    so are they just gonna keep faction changing over and over to farm gear too when they get stuck on rag?
  1. Yoshimiko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rafy View Post
    no it doesn't fall under that.
    the didn't gain advantage over other players without others being able to do the same.
    that means you can do the same.
    every guild can do the same.
    it's not exploiting, hacking, etc. w/e you want to call it.
    They can just simply say: "hey we just decided to change factions because we like X better than Y."
    Deal with it and stop crying.
    Pretty sure most of you didn't even down 2-3 bosses anyway...
    Exploits is pretty broadly defined as using something for something other than it's primary intention to gain an edge over others. Anyone with engineering could do saronite bomb trick. Anyone who knew how could do the yogg trick, Anyone could do the server-crashing fishing bug. These are all still clearly exploits.

    It's a gray area, and it'll be defined by blizz soon enough I imagine.Some exploits are fine, Some are not. It's up to blizzard to decide whether it's allowable or not, not us.
  1. La's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jlopez707 View Post
    Eh, I don't believe they should get banned for it, but whoever considers it a world first (IN MY OPINION) is wrong. A world first should be with even playing grounds. If they got world first like this, does this mean that US guilds will always get world firsts over EU because they didn't even receive the patch yet?
    to be fair, STARS and other guilds in Asia had to wait a week or more later before they got patches a while ago, not sure if it`s still like that now, but regardless they always only had shots at the later, harder heroic bosses and killed them before guilds that had a very long time to practice.

    so you could say that, in your opinion every other world first ever gotten is wrong, because STARS didn`t have an equal chance at those

    but I do agree, I don`t think this should be allowed, but I don`t think it should not be counted either.
  1. Zweistein's Avatar
    It's not a bug, it's a feature friends.
  1. mmocb98bc3d62f's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Venteus View Post
    Counts. Glad they took one from that other lame ass EU guild. Hope Method start pulling some world firsts soon.
    You sound mad bro
  1. slimj091's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jlopez707 View Post
    Eh, I don't believe they should get banned for it, but whoever considers it a world first (IN MY OPINION) is wrong. A world first should be with even playing grounds. If they got world first like this, does this mean that US guilds will always get world firsts over EU because they didn't even receive the patch yet?
    then don't consider it a world first. Stars doesn't get anything extra in game for being the first guild in the world to down a boss. if you want to ignore it, and claim another guild as world first next week then do so. no one else really cares. again.. not defending stars. just pointing out the idiocy of this world first crap.

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