We finally got another World First in the Liberation of Undermine Race to World First! It’s only the fourth boss to go down after 6 days of the race, most of which were spent gearing up in Normal and Heroic.
A True Trash Wall
Stix Bunkjunker proved to be a major leap in difficulty, taking 114 pulls to down compared to the previous boss’s 6, and the first two 1-shots. The pull predictions for the trash roller came in around 15 on average, with the highest call at 37. So it was a little more than that. The closest boss to this pull count in the first to fourth range is technically Blast Furnace, which required 121 pulls to down, but that was also the second hardest boss of the raid, Blackrock Foundry, and the top guilds just decided to go for it fourth.
In the end Liquid had to commit 19 out of 20 Vantus runes (a once-per-week item that increases damage on one specific boss). They had used 5 Vantus runes on specs that were unlikely to take part in future bosses for the week, and didn’t get much further than the sub-10% wipes, but as soon as they committed basically all of them they got the kill on that exact try.
And the full kill:
The raid composition. You can also check here for the full Raider.io version where you can check each player’s buffs, gear etc.
You can also check out the full pull with Liquid’s comms:
And if you needed more proof of how weird this boss was, a Protection Warrior (who was added to the raid composition late in the game) was top DPS, by far!
The Competition
For comparison, Echo is the closest to Liquid with a 17% best, with Method at 37, and Instant Dollars at 40. They haven’t spent as much time on the boss as Liquid, but that’s pretty standard for these early bosses, as the US raid release is still playing a major factor. Of course, the EU guilds get the benefit of seeing the strategies, raid composition and more. So, other than the fact that a global release would be extremely good for the race, it’s difficult to tell who comes out on top here. This is especially true if Blizzard decide to nerf the boss at any point before the top 3 guilds get a kill.
It will be very interesting to see whether Echo or Method commit Vantus runes on the fight as well, or try to push through without them, as they do have an additional day to push on Sprocketmonger.
