wow Amirdrassil RWF Day 5: Another DRAMATIC Phase Transition, Echo Smolderon W2nd

[Starym 3,800]

 

Day 5 was on a lower level than 4, but it kind of had to be as it would be hard to keep that tempo up. We did see the top guilds getting some progress done, but we didn't get any World Firsts, as Smolderon and Tindral locked the place down HARD. However, there was one very dramatic moment that made the whole day and a laaast minute move by Echo to grab the World 2nd!

The EU morning and day saw Echo grab their missing Council kill quick and then headed to Smolderon. However, the boss posed as much of a challenge without the bug as it did with it, as he took over the rest of their raid day. It took them 45 pulls to get him down to 4.65%:

They actually called it a little early, learning from their previous Larodar over-commitment, and leaving the World 2nd up for grabs! And grab they did, as we had TWELVE guilds on Smolderon during the day, each tossing their hat in the silver ring. However, only Instant Dollars, BDG and Skyline had the staying power (and regional timing) to have a real shot. Instant Dollars are currently closest to the kill, and even surpassed Echo's best with this 3.24% pull:

BDG weren't that far off either, with a 12% best, Skyline in third with their 28%. Unfortunately for all of them, Smolderon is the type of boss that makes you think you're almost there, but in reality you have at least 5 more 1-3% wipes ahead of you over the next many hours, without any guarantee of a kill. Instant dollars started to learn that with a few more sub 10%ers already, and there's a lot more in their future! It was looking pretty likely that Echo come in soon and grab the World 2nd after all.

And grab it they did!

With the 7/9 done, Echo now have the entire day to push Tindral, so let's see how far they get before Liquid wake up!

Then we're on to the main event. The currently undefeated boss, the gate to Fyrakk and the win in the RWF, Tindral Sageswift, Seer of the Flame. As we already covered, Liquid had some lag troubles at the start, as the encounter would just lag them out when the boss used certain abilities. The temporary solution was to soft reset the raid which would fix it. And it did... for 3 hours. And so, since the bug is still not fixed at all, Liquid had to soft reset the raid three times, each time waiting 30 minutes outside the raid. They did try some tech to instant reset it, but it didn't work.

That wasn't exactly the big issue with Tindral, however. After 165 pulls and the entire day spent on him, Liquid got the boss down to... 67%. And even that happened only very recently. The way they got that 67% and their first peek into phase 3 was preeetty legendary though. But first, let's take a look at the whole fight from an earlier pull:

Also, before we get to the crazy pull, you'll be wondering why it looks a lot...darker. Well, one of the big tech decisions Liquid made midway through progression was to use Inky Black Potion to be able to see the boss abilities better!

Liquid were also getting insanely good at getting to their limit at one point, with the consistency being off the charts, with these consecutive pulls (their best was 72% at that point):

So, that's the fight, now let's get to the cliffhanger. Once again, after their insane Smolderon kill with 2 tanks finishing the boss off, we had a crazy first look at phase 3, with only one Paladin surviving, having to fly over to the next platform alone, battle rezzing a a Hunter so that they could get as much info as possible! It doesn't get much better than this.

So, Tindral does look to be a TAD overtuned, because despite them (sort of) arriving into phase 3, the boss is at 67% after 144 pulls. And it's not looking like a gear issue either. But, we'll see if there are ways around this, but I'm feeling pretty confident in expecting a nerf sometime during the EU evening/early NA morning. Not that there necessarily needs to be a nerf, this is just based off of Blizzards behavior in similar situations so far.

And in closing, here's Liquid's general plan for the next few days:

 

So, while there wasn't as much action as day 4, it was very focused and VERY entertaining.