Race To World First – Sepulcher of the First Ones

It has been quite a while, but the race to world first is finally upon us with the newest raid: Sepulcher of the First Ones. While the patch dropped on February 22nd, the raid was released only a week after, but not to its full glory, as the last three bosses are locked for yet another week.

Event Overview

Since this is the first time that the raid is going to lock out some content for an extra week, that means that the guilds are going to have fewer options when it comes to gearing up. It is important to remember that the last bosses of any raid have a higher item level than the previous ones and that the quality of utility items like trinkets, and in this case, tier sets are extremely important.

The fact that the last three bosses are locked out does not only put a problem of gear, but it also creates the suspense of how the last three fights are going to clear out. During the first week of the raid, even with only eight bosses available, we could already see that a lot of guilds were having some issues with the Anduin fight and that they did not clear it during the first day.

Image Credits | Wowhead

When mythic difficulty opens, we can expect all of the guilds to run the heroic difficulty to the end in order to snatch as much gear as possible before they enter the mythic raid difficulty. This is probably going to be the case because of the tier sets that have been brought back to the game, as having certain set bonuses will significantly improve the quality of the raid, especially for certain classes.

Regarding the difficulty of the raid, it seems to be one of the hardest ones yet, as it is giving more trouble to all guilds that are participating in the event than it was expected, and it is on heroic difficulty. However, while the patch did take a really long time to release, and Blizzard took their time to produce a good raid, there are still some things that are unfinished, or bugged, which could play an important role in the race to world first.

During the event, if you happen to get a spicy BOE drop from the heroic difficulty, you can easily cash it in for some gold as all of the guilds that are participating at the event will pay hefty amounts. Even some older content can get you rewarded if you join one of their raids. The highest reward has to be the 10,000,000 gold for the normal tier token from Dreadlords & Rygelon from Echo at the moment, but make sure to investigate the prices on your own, as they will probably increase the closer the race to world first is with the opening of the mythic difficulty on March 8th.

Participating Guilds

Liquid

While you might be familiar with team Liquid in general, you are probably surprised that they happen to have a World of Warcraft guild. However, there is nothing to worry about, you did not miss out on a bunch of new players showing up and dominating WoW raiding ranks, as the whole roster of Liquid is the one that was earlier known as Complexity Limit. Liquid acquired Limit earlier this year in January.

Image Credits | Liquid Guild

Even if Liquid did not manage to win the race to world first, in the Sanctum of Domination, as Echo managed to triumph over Sylvanas first, it was quite a close call. This time around, they will be going all out when it comes to fighting the Jailer, and they will be covering the whole event live in Boston once the mythic difficulty opens on March 8th.

Method

Back in BFA, Method was quite a dominant guild before the whole scandal of buying gold and going into debt during the Battle of Dazzar’Alor and Crucible of Storms raids. However, after the guild split, their success was not as glorious in Shadowlands. Just like Liquid, Method will be hosting a live stream of their race to world first. They promise to provide at least 16 hours of content every day, which is quite exciting.

Echo

When it comes to the last tier of raiding, Sanctum of Domination, the guild that dominated the race to world first was the guild Echo, pun intended. After the split of Method, Echo proved which members were the better ones, and we are very excited to see their determination and skills in action when it comes to the Sepulcher of the First Ones. They, too, will be streaming their progress live, and since they seem to be the strongest contender, make sure to tune in!

Pieces

While it has been a while since Pieces managed to snatch the first kill on a final boss in the race to world first, they are certainly not a guild that should be ignored. In the last raid, they were only a day behind the kill on Sylvanas, and they managed to claim the #3 spot on the rankings. Unlike the previously mentioned guilds, they do not seem to be giving a full-scale cover, but you will definitely be able to find certain members streaming their progress.

Image Credits | Method gg

Other participating guilds to check out

While there are a lot of great guilds in World of Warcraft, we cannot cover each and every one. However, we decided to give an honorable mention to some of the ones that might have a chance in taking the crown in the Sepulcher of the First Ones world first race. Here are the guilds to keep an eye on besides the ones we mentioned:

• BDGG
• Aversion
• Aster
• Club Camel
• FatSharkYes
• Skyline
• History

Sanctum of Domination – Sylvanas Windrunner

While the fight was kind of a letdown when it comes to lore, the encounter itself was somewhat entertaining, especially when it came to the race to world first. Sylvanas managed to wipe Echo 176 times before they snatched the first kill. It took 7 days to kill her, which is the least amount of time in the last three released raids.

The second kill was done by Liquid, 15 hours after Echo, which is to be fair, pretty close. Pisces was to follow for the third kill, and it occurred 37 hours after the first kill. Considering that this is the last released raid before Sepulcher of the First Ones, it is probably the best indicator of who has the best chance of winning the race to world first.

Castle Nathria- Sire Denathrius

Being the first raid of the Shadowlands expansion, things were kind of kicked up a notch as many struggled to even get to the final boss of the raid due to all the insane mechanics. Sludgefist was the boss that most guilds happened to struggle with, in particular due to his insta-kill mechanic where people are chained up together.

Of course, that does not mean that Sire Denathrius was a pushover, as it took Liquid to get the first kill 9 days after the raid unlocked the mythic difficulty. Over those 9 days, Liquid was wiped by Denathrius 143 times, which is quite a lot, considering how long the encounter was.

The second kill was achieved by Echo, which is quite impressive because this was the first raid they decided to give their best. Echo took down Sire Denathrius 16 hours after Liquid. The third kill actually took quite a bit, as it was achieved almost 6 full days after the first one by Pieces.

Image Credits | Icy Veins

Ny’Alotha, The Waking City – N’Zoth the Corruptor

The final raid of the second-worst expansion according to many(with WoD still holding the first place, of course) was actually a bit of a letdown. However, that does not mean it was not challenging, as it took quite a bit for the first guild to conquer an old god who has been hyped for years. In this tier, there was an introduction of the corrupted mechanic for armor, which created some of the most broken and fun strategies when it comes to mythic raiding as well as mythic+.

N’Zoth, being the final old god, was a very tough fight, and it took Liquid 273 wipes to defeat him. The number of wipes is not the only bigger thing compared to Sanctum of Domination and Castle Nathria, as it also took 10 days from the release of mythic difficulty to defeat the boss. In fact, N’Zoth was so difficult that it took 5 days and 16 hours to down him after the previous encounter in the raid, which is Carapace of N’Zoth (…technically also N’Zoth).

The second kill went to Method, and this is before the guild split up and got the members to leave to form Echo. Method managed to down N’Zoth 40 hours after Liquid. You might be seeing the pattern of which are the most competent guilds for the world’s first race, Sepulcher of the First Ones, as the third kill here went to Pieces, 116 hours after Liquid.

Considering that this was the last raid of the WoW expansion, it serves as a good retrospective and what to expect from the Jailor encounter in the latest raid. It is probably going to be the most difficult one yet, and considering that lore-wise the Jailor is pretty much as tough as it gets, we really hope that he makes all the competing guilds use every trick of the book.