wow Sanctum of Domination Mythic Race: A Very Sylvanas Day 6

[Starym 3,800]

 

Day 6 of the race was... dramatic to say the least. There was a whole lot of Sylvanas phase 3 action, the lowering of percentages, and one crucial detail Echo may have overlooked/were not aware of which led to some very disappointed players. At the end of the day, the Banshee still lives.

As day 5 had concluded we saw Complexity-Limit get into phase 3, finishing up at 70%, while Echo still hadn't even seen the final phase. Well, the morning EU hours fixed all of that today, as Echo managed to get her down to 65% before Limit woke up. We also got a new addition to the Sylvanas progress, as Method claimed the World 4th on Kel'Thuzad. And while we did have 4 guilds progressing on Sylvanas, it really was all about the top two.

It really is amazing to see the two top guilds progress on the same boss at the same time, even being at the same points and even percentages, literally racing side-by-side on the boss ( and the day saw many instances of this). This is definitely one of my personal favorite things in the race, these few pulls where their attempts line up perfectly and it's very much a live race, even visually! In any case, Echo began to move up front fairly quickly, and by the time I woke up in the EU evening, they achieved a very low pull. We'll be taking a look at several Sylvanas phase 3 pulls in the article, and starting them later and later so you don't have to watch the whole thing over and over. First off, here's the first really close call Echo had, at 51.8%:

So far, so hype for the guild. However, that 2-ish percent would become a real problem later on. Limit were not doing so well in the meantime, being stuck on their 63% best from the day before for a LONG time, as Echo were just getting closer and closer to the 50% mark, cutting 0.6% off TWICE with the closest call at 50.56%. Around this time I was made aware of a certain aura that had been datamined, something that BDGG and a few other guilds had been aware of for quite a while, but Echo (and possibly Limit) seemingly missed. Here's a direct quote from my Raider.IO live coverage, from when Echo were still at 52%:

Sooo, time to have a little chat about the end of the Sylvanas encounter... Echo are 1.8% away from the presumed end of the fight end, but I'd wager that it does not actually end there. Aside from the fact that it would be quite disappointing to see the race end this fast, this seems like a very good way to differentiate Mythic from the other difficulties. And then there's this: Sylvanas This has been datamined and MIGHT indicate the actual ending percentage for Mythic, as has been indicate to us by a source. We can't be sure, of course, but it does seem like the correct amount to be a lot harder, and yet not too high so that there are no more platforms to go to.

Prior to getting the heads up on this, I was already thinking/hoping that the fight did not end at 50%, as it seemed very strange that Blizzard would allow Sylvanas to die THIS quickly, basically making Sanctum of Domination the next Emerald Nightmare (as that's the last raid that took less time to complete, unless you count the 3-boss Trial of Valor, which came immediately after that). With the above information, however, it seemed pretty likely that Sylvanas would not stop at 50%, and this was soon confirmed, to Echo's VERY large dismay:

49.57%. The looks on the players' faces and their screams really say it all. It's sad to see such great expectations get crushed, but it does seem rather uncharacteristic of Echo to not have known about at least the POTENTIAL of Sylvanas not being defeated at the same point as in Normal and Heroic, considering other top guilds did. You may be wondering why they were so certain there. Well I'd say it is because they basically played that pull perfectly. From their perspective, there was nothing more they could do, no extra damage to be had and they JUST BARELY managed to get her below 50%. With that information and certainty, perhaps any of us would have assumed the fight HAD to end at 50 as well. Here are some of the reactions from players, and a meme which I just had to share because it really perfectly encapsulates it all:

Source: DivinegonDWM.

This is not okay

— George (@RogerbrownWoW) July 18, 2021

If a kill happens right after reset, I will not forgive whoever decided it to be 45%. pic.twitter.com/JTQakaJZG4

— Justwait (@Justw8) July 18, 2021

Devs after Echo finding out about 45% (colorized) pic.twitter.com/kIkV35Y1Gv

— Ted Bacinschi (@Slootbag) July 18, 2021

Limit, on the other hand, knew all about the datamined spell ID and the possible/probable 45% ever since Heroic week, but decided to play as if it wasn't 100% sure, just to play the odds that it might die at 50. As soon as Echo burst that bubble, however, Limit went straight into the rest of their Heroic splits, as Echo took some time and didn't pull the boss again, at least not on stream (and most likely not at all). Limit continued on after their splits and pushed a few more hours, getting their own very low try, only about 1% away from Echo, at 50.64%:

Soooo the big question. Is Sylvanas killable this reset?

Short answer: yes. Long answer... the level of skill ALREADY shown by all these players is just insane, but it will need to be even higher, AND some RNG needs to line up during one of the pulls, 0 mistakes whatsoever and then... yes. She is defeated. Some are predicting it WILL happen this reset almost certainly, some are saying it's borderline whether it's even possible, so we'll just have to wait and see. The nightmare scenario here, that many have already called as definitely happening, would be if she survives the reset but then Complexity-Limit get her down first AND Echo down her within the "16 hour" period of time (the amount of time the NA severs get the reset ahead of EU), which would make the discussion over the race very unpleasant. Guilds have said in the past that "World First is World First", meaning that whoever actually kills it first is the winner, but their fans and many of the followers of the race don't quite agree. And while we haven't had this situation pop up yet (but got really close to it in Nathria), it would be a pretty solid mess if it happened. So despite my own wishes for a longer race, I do hope we avoid that scenario entirely.

One last detail, there are these very cool charts the folks over at Raider.IO have made (not me, I just do the coverage!), that compare the progress timings on Sylvanas for Echo and Limit. Here's a screenshot of one, but the full version is much better, as you can hover over the percentages and get some more data there:

If you want even more details on the events of the day, head on over to Raider.IO's progress coverage.