wow Nighthold M WF Race Day 7: Only Gul'dan Left

[Starym 3,775]

Two guilds on 9/10, will Gul'dan survive the reset? And how will his Mythic-only phase affect the encounter and the race overall?

 

The first week of Nighthold Mythic progress is over and we have only one boss left alive. Now, that doesn't mean that Gul'dan has made it through the first reset just yet, as the EU guilds still have today to down him and make everyone sad to see another 1-reset race.

Serenity have been at Gul'dan for over a day and were the only guild to see the Mythic fight for around 14 hours. It was Exorsus that joined them after getting that pesky Elisande down yesterday in the early afternoon, proving once again that they are very much in the very top of the top raiding community, after that misjudgement on Helya during the last race. Now, it may seem that Serenity has this race locked up, as they've gotten the last three World Firsts on the three toughest bosses in the raid so far, but Exorsus' kill of Elisande was actually faster than Serenity's - by only 40 or so minutes. Both guilds took just over 2 days to down the Grand Magistrix after having gotten Star Augur: 2 days, 4 hours, 10 minutes for Serenity and 2 days, 3 hours, 38 minutes for Exorsus. Now, obviously we don't know how exactly much each guild was actually raiding during that time, but it still shows that they're are very close, skill-wise.

The perhaps more unexpected news is that no other guild has reached 9/10, with only From Scratch moving away from the huge 7/10 group by downing Star Augur in the evening, getting that 8/10 and joining Method . But when you take a look at the exact kill timings, things get less unexpected, as Method only killed the Augur around a day and a half ago, so if they take the same amount of time as the top two guilds did, they should be downing Elisande in around 12 hours. And speaking of the 7/10ers, that group is now 28 guilds strong, as they enjoy the nice planet sky-boxes in Star Augur's planetarium.

Serenity after their first few attempts on Mythic Gul'dan (image courtesy of Sloot)

The big question now is Gul'dan. As with any raid, it's always the endboss that everyone's interested in, the rest are just obstacles in the way. As everyone's second least favorite Orc (screw you Garrosh, you're still at the top of my list!) wasn't tested at all on the PTR on this difficulty and actually has a secret Mythic phase, he is going to determine the fate of this race. The fact no one has seen the phase before and that it hasn't been tested by players at all could lead to it being extremely hard, or even impossible before nerfs/fixes, or significant amounts of extra gear, as it seems unlikely Blizzard wanted the race featuring 10 bosses to end in week 1. This would mean that other guilds would have a chance to catch up to Serenity, and at least have a shot at getting the World First. Serenity would always keep their advantage, as they have the most time on Gul'dan and are gathering invaluable information on every pull, but that advantage would shrink, allowing for a bit of a more interesting race. The current speculation on the Mythic only phase is that Illidan shows up in the fight, possibly possessed by Sargeras, and will add his considerable talents to the fire-engulfed Gul'dan that you can see at the top of the article. Possibly he'll also incessantly ask the raiders "I've sacrificed everything, what have you given?" until they give up.

In any case, today is going to be a particularly exciting day, as we wait with baited breath to see if Gul'dan dies and if Method catch up to the top two and get to see the final boss before the end of the reset. As always, you can follow the progress race live over at Method.gg.

[demonardvark 556]

plus 10 internets for garrosh being favorite orc (mine too, favorite character in wow period)

you brought up a really interesting point that the 4th mythic only phase is going to be a huge variable/ obstacle because of the unknown factor. I had only moderate interest in this race for a number of reasons, but the Gul'dan part has now made this really interesting. Now its not who can follow pre made strategies the best, now its who can develop the best on the fly strats. Those are always the most chaotic and the most fun :D (ex. my guilds first elsidandre kill was really really ugly but we were all laughing through it :) )

[Stan 5,018]

If anyone's interested, here's the model of Hulked Gul'dan. Seems to be possessed by Kil'jaeden or Sargeras.

And here's Illidan, well Sargeras in Illidan's body.

[Starym 3,775]

5 hours ago, demonardvark said:

plus 10 internets for garrosh being favorite orc (mine too, favorite character in wow period)

you brought up a really interesting point that the 4th mythic only phase is going to be a huge variable/ obstacle because of the unknown factor. I had only moderate interest in this race for a number of reasons, but the Gul'dan part has now made this really interesting. Now its not who can follow pre made strategies the best, now its who can develop the best on the fly strats. Those are always the most chaotic and the most fun :D (ex. my guilds first elsidandre kill was really really ugly but we were all laughing through it :) )

Aaaaactually I said least favorite :D Never liked his story ever since WotLK when they started making him this evil guy completely randomly, but most of all I couldn't buy that everyone else in the Horde just stood by as he was clearly racist evil from the start, especially Thrall. Made him look completely clueless and fucked up his character as well.

[demonardvark 556]

5 hours ago, Stan said:

If anyone's interested, here's the model of Hulked Gul'dan. Seems to be possessed by Kil'jaeden or Sargeras.

And here's Illidan, well Sargeras in Illidan's body.

Isn't the red guldan

Spoiler

simply his phase 3 version even in normal and heroic?

Love the sargeradin model though, would be great if you end up having to fight him too

56 minutes ago, Starym said:

Aaaaactually I said least favorite :D Never liked his story ever since WotLK when they started making him this evil guy completely randomly, but most of all I couldn't buy that everyone else in the Horde just stood by as he was clearly racist evil from the start, especially Thrall. Made him look completely clueless and fucked up his character as well.

my reading skills are top notch, i'd use the excuse that english isn't my first language but I was introduced so young i'm not sure the excuse stands XD.

[Starym 3,775]

Quote

my reading skills are top notch, i'd use the excuse that english isn't my first language but I was introduced so young i'm not sure the excuse stands XD.

To be fair "second least favorite" is quite a mouthful.

[Prophet001 543]

Method got elisande down?

 

Sweet.

 

Looks like a good race to down gul'dan.