Heart of Fear Heroic Progress Coverage

UPDATE - Nov 21 03:00 by Starym
While Terrace progress has started, it doesn't mean guilds stopped going for the finish in Heart, in fact we have two new entries in 10 man. Myth and Moonz secured the No.8 and 9 spots in the race.

UPDATE - Nov 20 15:40 by Starym
We have a 25 man Top 20!

And a 10 man Top 10

UPDATE - Nov 20 14:12 by Karsten
With the new tech available from WoW Progress and WoW Raider, we can stalk guilds progress through the instances in even more detail now! This is how often a guild had to pull Shek'zeer in 25m Heroic mode in order to get the job done. Remember, fewer pulls doesn't neccessarily mean better, each guild has their own style and some take more pulls while others take their time.

UPDATE - Nov 19 21:57 by Starym
Some 10 man catchup happening today, with two guilds finishing up the race just in time for Terrace. Нафиг с пляжу я тут ляжу and Solid Line finally got Empress down, World 6th and 7th.

We also have a closed out Top 20 in 25 man with Immersion just grabbing the final spot!

UPDATE - Nov 19 21:57 by Starym
Two more guilds have downed Empress in 25 man, with Accidentally taking the EU 10th and Midwinter securing their place as one of the top US guilds at No.4.

We also have a 10 man top 5 with Chinese guild 黎明之翼 (Wings of Dawn) taking the No.5 spot and Asian 2nd!

Remember, tomorrow is the start of Terrace of Endless Spring Heroic and the final step in Tier 14, and we'll finally have an overall champion to declare (hopefully not in the first reset, though!).

UPDATE - Nov 17 23:59 by Starym
The 10 man feast continues, with Chinese guild 龍騰天下 snagging the 5th spot at the finish line. Our thanks to Dakiel for the information and Chinese guild tracking site!

Thanks to this new site we also have some changes in the 25 man final rankings, specifically to spots 12 and 13, which actually belong to 尘 埃 (Dust) and 七 煌, respectively. This bumps Envy, KIN Raiders and Why me down to spots 14, 15 and 16.

We cant be 100% sure of this new information source (as our Chinese isn't what you would call "existent") but it seems legit, as some poking around the Chinese armory confirms the dates on the site

UPDATE - Nov 17 17:08 by Starym
It seems it's 10 man day today! We have the World fourth, EU third kill on Empress by КрашТест, so it would seem that the extra loot from Terrace Normal really made a difference. Congratulations!

UPDATE - Nov 17 14:52 by Starym
We finally have a EU 2nd, World third on 10 man Empress! Freak Me Out have cleared that last hurdle and finished up the content in third place behind DREAM Paragon and Stars China, so big congratulations to them.

Why Me has also secured the No. 14, EU 9 spot in 25 man.

UPDATE - Nov 16 20:07 by Starym
KIN Raiders are passed the finish line! Asia 2nd and World 13th for the Korean guild for their Grand Empress Shek'zeer kill.

UPDATE - Nov 16 19:02 by Starym
Envy have finished up the raid in 12th place,downing Empress EU 8th.

UPDATE - Nov 16 16:35 by Starym
And here we have the 25 man Top 10!

UPDATE - Nov 16 02:08 by Starym
And we have a 25 man top 10! ScrubBusters close out the 10 best guilds in Heart of Fear. Exodus finished very close behind then in with their US 3rd Empress kill.

UPDATE - Nov 15 18:16 by Starym
We have a 10 man World second! Stars China (a part of them stayed when most migrated to Taiwan servers a long time ago) have downed Grand Empress Shek'zeer and claimed the No.2 spot after Paragon. Since it's Chinese servers Wowprogress doesn't record it, but armory does and here's the killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 14 16:35 by Starym
Well, the results are in for the first reset and we have nine guilds done in 25 man and one in 10 man! Now with the re-clears and some additional loot we should be filling out the top 10 and top 3, hopefully this week!

UPDATE - Nov 14 00:35 by Starym
And yet more kills! Pulse have downed Empress as well, landing in 9th spot on the finish line, EU 6th! Also, and insanely, they're the first Alliance guild to finish the instance. I mean I'm a Horde guy myself, but come on Blizzard, when guilds are faction changing to Horde to get an advantage/keep up with the rest, maybe it's time to do something?

UPDATE - Nov 13 20:55 by Starym
Worst day ever for Empress, with yet another guild getting her down. Apex got the World 8th, EU 5th kill and finished in 8th place!

UPDATE - Nov 13 19:08 by Starym
Well, it seems these guilds REALLY do NOT want to re-clear HoF before downing Empress, as Exorsus has just proved by getting her World 7th, EU 4th!

Meanwhile, in 10 man we have our first Imperial Vizier Zor'lok kill in the US. It seems the 10 man guilds there REALLY didn't like him and most of them skipped. In any case the No.1 and 2 spots go to Modest and Rats.
Also, Crimson Blade got the 10 man US first on Amber Shaper Un'sok.

UPDATE - Nov 13 18:45 by Starym
We have another across the finish line! German guild genuine downed Empress World 6th, EU 3rd and managed to clear HoF within 1 reset, so cheers to them! It's getting really competitive in this segmented tier 14, nothing seems set in stone and all the top guilds have a shot at a high ranking, should make Terrace REALLY intense.

UPDATE - Nov 13 17:28 by Starym
And we have a Top 5! Stars just downed Empress to finish up the instance and get themselves a World 5th, Asia first kill! Congratulations to them!
As a short recap we have Blood Legion, Method, Wraith, vodka and Stars comprising the top 5.

UPDATE - Nov 13 16:34 by Starym
Blood Legion released their Grand Empress Shek'zeer World First Video!

 UPDATE - Nov 13 01:20 by Starym
With only one day until the instance resets, vodka managed to get that final kill in and grab the World 4th, US 2nd on Empress, congratulations!

UPDATE - Nov 12 21:21 by Starym
We have a World third! French guild Wraith has pulled off a bit of an upset and just downed Grand Empress Shek'zeer EU second! Huge achievement for them and they've managed to beat out some heavy favorites like vodka, Envy and Exodus, all of whom had a pretty significant time advantage on Empress, having downed Un'sok earlier.

So, congratulations on finishing the race on the podium!

In 10 man, Die Hordlinge joined the other two guilds fighting for the silver spot with their World 5th Un'sok kill.

UPDATE - Nov 12 21:04 by Starym
Something happened! It's been a while since I wrote an update, let's see if i can remember how to do it...
The 10 man race popped back up, with Moonz downing Amber Shaper Un'sok World fourth, EU third and joining Нафиг с пляжу я тут ляжу in the race for second place. With only two days to do, will either of them be able to take down Empress before the reset?

UPDATE - Nov 12 09:04 by liQ
And we do have a complete US top 5 on 10 man for Garalon heroic as well with Topped Off (US 4th), Wolfpack Only (US 5th) completing the rankings.

UPDATE - Nov 12 07:29 by Karsten
Three's the charm: E V O take World 3rd Un'sok in 10m mode! Meanwhile, Midwinter takes 25m US 4th Un'sok.

UPDATE - Nov 12 01:01 by Starym
And we have a leader! Нафиг с пляжу я тут ляжу have downed 10 man Amber Shaper Un'sok World second and are now in position to take that No.2 spot at the end with only Empress to go!.

UPDATE - Nov 12 00:08 by Starym
The 10 man race is heating up, with second place (also known as first place minus Paragon) up for grabs. 8 guilds are at 4/6 and racing for Amber Shaper Un'sok and Grand Empress Shek'zeer.

UPDATE - Nov 11 20:15 by Starym
And we have a World 2nd! To no one's surprise it's Method taking down Grand Empress Shek'zeer EU first, 18 hours after Blood Legion. This sets the stage pretty well for the upcming final showdown in Terrace of Endless Spring in two weeks where the ultimate Tier 14 champion will be decided.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 11 20:05 by Starym
Kin Raiders just joined the 13-strong 5/6 club with their Asia 2nd, World 14th Un'sok kill and are now at the Empress' doorstep, fighting for that World second. Considering no other guild has yet downed her this might get messy as more and more guilds have spent a lot of time on the fight.

UPDATE - Nov 11 17:11 by Karsten
The Russian guild Нафиг с пляжу я тут ляжу just defeated Mel'jarak in 10m for their World 8th/EU7th! A little bit faster than them was devil may cry, who secured World 7th and EU 6th on the same boss. On 25m German guild For the Horde just killed the Ambershaper, making it four German guilds competing among the other international ones. Ascendance downed Mel'jarak for the World 18th kill..

UPDATE - Nov 11 16:29 by Karsten
Wraith vs Ambershaper Un'sok 25m Heroic

UPDATE - Nov 11 15:47 by Karsten
There we go, we have a winner! The 10m race has been won - who would've thought - by DREAM Paragon. Took them a while this time, apparently HoF was a bit harder than MV. Congratulations!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 11 15:17 by Karsten
More kills! In 10 man killed solid line Garalon and Crimson Blade got a World 5th and US First on Mel'jarak! On the 25 man front is the situation as follows: For the Horde and Midwinter got past Garalon. Midwinter pressed on and defeated Mel'jarak, the same goes for Kin Raiders and For the Horde. And finally, just a few minuts ago, did Envy manage to down Un'sok. The World First is gone, but they can still try to get a Top 3 finish - although that is rather unlikely. But we believe! 

UPDATE - Nov 11 04:54 by Starym
So, I just did some math real quick and if you leave out the pre-nerf Zor'lok, this progress race lasted all of two days. Specifically, it's been approximately 50 hours and 30 minutes since Method downed Zor'lok after the second nerf to Blood Legion's Empress kill. Don't really know what to say to that, so draw your own conclusions. Spoiler alert: IT WAS SHORT.

UPDATE - Nov 11 03:45 by Starym
With the top dog in 25 man sorted out, it's time to check on 10 man, where Moonz is making a very strong case for being the No.2 guild in the format, being on 4/6 with their World 4th, World second non-skip Wind Lord Mel'jarak kill! Also in 10 man Нафиг с пляжу я тут ляжу have downed Garalon EU 10th and gone 3/6, as well as Freak Me out . Both those guilds didn't skip the first boss, so they're in 3rd and 4th place in 10 man at the moment.

Meanwhile Stars join the 5/6 crowd, now 10 strong, and are in the running for a World second Empress kill!

I'd also like to personally congratulate Blood Legion on their first endboss World First, really a great job all around and showing all those naysayers that US guilds can bring it and then some! And here's their raid composition, courtesy of MMOChamp:

Riggnaros Acrol Bushino Notdiggz Zoomkins

Truefire Ataxus Logoz Zonker Affinichi

Ninecatz Absalom Bobina Grant Nodzz

Hyacine Maladii Wishesz Brightleaf Cirrax

Optyy Xariis Coogz Shinafae Soy

UPDATE - Nov 11 02:13 by Karsten
A few words from Riggnaros: "This was without a doubt one of the most enjoyable encounters of the expansion thus far. It was easily the most well-tuned fight that Blizzard has released up to this point. I'd like to offer a special thanks to everyone who put in the time and effort needed to push long hours all week. That said, there is still a long road ahead, as Terrace of the Endless Spring and the Sha of Fear await our arrival..."

UPDATE - Nov 11 02:00 by Karsten
Well, everyone has to have his first time - this is Blood Legion's moment: Their first instance end boss World First. Method in Mogu'shan, now BL - T14 is a content of firsts. After almost every boss got taken down by their strongest competitors Method, Blood Legion was able to turn the tides with the World First kill of Un'sok - and now they are looking very strong for the final instance in two weeks. Huge congratulations to the guys, well deserved! Pics will follow shortly.

UPDATE - Nov 11 00:53 by Karsten
Tons of Garalon Kills on 25m: Ascendance, Kin Raiders, Why Me, ScrubBusters and Immersion all squashed the giant bug. On 10 man did Moonz manage to get the World 4th Mel'jarak kill!

UPDATE - Nov 10 23:22 by Karsten
E V O manages to get the 10m World 3rd on Mel'jarak!

UPDATE - Nov 10 21:51 by Karsten
More kills! In 10m both Moonz and Liquicity downed Garalon for World 8th and 9th. In the 25m instance both Apex and Pulse defeated Un'sok, grabbing World 9th and 10th respectively. For those of you who keep asking about Why Me: They lost a lot of time on Zor'lok, but are now trying to clear the instance as fast as possible. They are currently trying on Garalon.

UPDATE - Nov 10 20:43 by Karsten
Things getting more confused by the minute. While wss is currently not in the Heart of Fear, they claim to have access to Shek'zeer. There are screenshots with blacked out overviews and blacked out charnames, so we really don't know what's going on and whether it's intended or not.

UPDATE - Nov 10 20:27 by Karsten
Envy seems hellbent on redeeming themselves and have managed to fight back: They are now facing Un'sok after defeating the three bosses before rather quickly. Will they be able to upset the leading guilds? In other news: German guild why so serious, which skipped Zor'lok just a few minutes before his nerf, are currently not in the Heart of Fear - which indicates that they are in fact done for this lock-out.

UPDATE - Nov 10 17:39 by Karsten
Two more kills on Garalon in 10m: IRON LION ZION got the 6th kill, Ctrl Z the 7th. One big question remains though: Can guilds that skipped Zor'lok compete on Shek'zeer? We asked around, but no one was willing to answer that specific question.

UPDATE - Nov 10 16:51 by Karsten
Why so serious got another Un'sok kill. Congratulations to World 8th! In other news: Stars keeps pressing hard and just passed by Mel'jarak (25m).

UPDATE - Nov 10 15:51 by Starym
Weeeel, "getting crowded" is starting to be a bit of an understatement in the 5/6 camp in 25 man, with Exorsus just getting Amber Shaper down as well. That makes SEVEN guilds at Grand Empress Shek'zeer and at the threshold of a World First and victory in heart of fear, this is going to be a massive battle at the end here. Let's all just hope it takes at least until the next reset!

UPDATE - Nov 10 15:28 by Starym
German guild genuine also defeated Un'sok - now it's getting REALLY full in that last boss room. In the meanwhile, MV 25m #2 Envy managed to defeat Zor'lok.

UPDATE - Nov 10 15:20 by Karsten
The two dominant Asian guilds are killing stuff too, Stars just moved past Garalon and Kin Raiders past Zor'lok on 25m.

UPDATE - Nov 10 13:04 by Karsten
Wraith rounds out the 25m World Top 5 and joins Blood Legion, Method, vodka and Exodus on Shek'zeer!

UPDATE - Nov 10 11:23 by Karsten
It's getting crowded in the throne room - Exodus downed Ambershaper as well for the 25m World 4th!

UPDATE - Nov 10 07:54 by Karsten
Today might be the day, ladies and gentlemen, that Shek'zeer has to face her mortality. Even though it's not yet on WoW Progress, the Ambershaper did fall for vodka for the 25m World 3rd! And let me tell you, these guys are very confident in their chances to get the kill first. I would say: Good luck to each of the three guilds!

UPDATE - Nov 10 06:49 by Starym
Ascendance and Midwinter join the 25 man Zor'lok killers ranks and enter the race, as EU 8th and US 4th, respectively.

UPDATE - Nov 10 04:08 by Starym
Method has released their World First Imperial Vizier Zor'lok video, still the hardest boss in the raid so far.

UPDATE - Nov 10 04:02 by Starym
E V O have downed Garalon 10 man World 5th EU 4th, and gone 2/6 since they skipped first boss. In the same part of 10 man progress, Liquicity have also downed the second boss, and are at 2/6.

UPDATE - Nov 10 02:47 by Starym
Liquicity have claimed the 10 man World third on Imperial Vizier Zor'lok.

UPDATE - Nov 10 01:33 by Starym
When it rains it...kills bosses. Or something. In any case, both Exodus and Wraith have secured a 25 man Mel'jarak kill and went 4/6 leaving us with six guilds on 4/6. It was a W 9th US 3rd for Exodus and a W 7th EU 5th, taking geniune's spot due to slow wowprog updates.

Also, in 10 man Moonz are at 2/6 with their Ta'yak World second non-skip kill!

UPDATE - Nov 10 01:19 by Starym
Well, it seems Paragon reaally want to spite me since they basically downed Amber Shaper Un'sok at the same time as i was writing it was really really hard. WELL OK GUYS. In any case, congratulations to them, World First 5/6 10 man! Only Empress left!
They continue with their tradition of not taking screenhots of easy bosses, but wait, how was this an easy boss, you may ask? Well it seems Amber Shaper was nerfed in 10 man 3 tries before they actually downed it :( To be fair if the boss was actually hard for Paragon (and they say the would have downed it within a few hours pre-nerf)  it would basically be impossible for the rest of the 10 man field, so we can't really blame Blizzard that much on this one.

Let's just hope REALLY hard that the nerf is only for 10 man and won't affect the 25 man race, as the guilds that downed it earlier deserve their lead.

UPDATE - Nov 10 01:14 by Starym
As expected Stars are on their way up, going 2/6 just now.
In the 10 man race things are very quiet and it seems that Amber Shaper Un'sok is a real challenge in that mode.

UPDATE - Nov 10 00:57 by Starym
We have a 10 man World second on Imperial Vizier Zor'lok! Moons have taken the fight to Paragon (figuratively speaking) and are the only other guildss to have downed the first boss in 10 man! Huge congratulations to them!

UPDATE - Nov 10 00:27 by Starym
It seems either I missed Exodus' 25 man Garalon kill bringing them to 3/6, or Wowprogress was particultly slow on this one, in either case they nabbed the World 10th, US 3rd kill on him. We also have another new player in the game, with Immersion having downed Zor'lok!

UPDATE - Nov 09 23:47 by Starym
Genuine hops aboard the 4/6 train with a Mel'jarak kill, World 7th Eu 5th. We now have four guilds on 4/6.

UPDATE - Nov 09 23:19 by Starym
It's action o'clock it seems with a third guild getting to 4/6. Apex has downed Wind Lord Mel'jarak World 6th, EU 4th!

UPDATE - Nov 09 22:55 by Starym
And the Asian guilds have joined in, with Stars downing the first boss, World 10th, Asian first and will soon be at least 3/6. If Empress holds out just a little bit longer this might be a seriously tight and interesting race!

UPDATE - Nov 09 22:01 by Starym
Apex also joined the Garalon club and we now have six guilds on 3/6 and in the running for the world top 5, at the very least. Still only two guilds on 5/6 and two on 4/6

UPDATE - Nov 09 21:26 by Starym
Genuine have also gone 3/6, with Garalon down EU 5th. Meanwhile why so seriously also went 3/6, but by downing Mel'jarak World 5th, EU 3rd. Really makes it a shame they skipped the first boss as they could have been in contention for some high placing finishes if the race end this reset, as it seems it will.

UPDATE - Nov 09 20:42 by Starym
Pulse have secured the first Garalon kill since Exorsus and broken away from the pack on 2/6, World 6th, EU 4th

UPDATE - Nov 09 19:57 by Starym
У беляша downed Mel'jarak in 10 man, and are the closest to Paragon now, despite the fact that they skipped the first boss and have no chance at the final one this reset. Genuine have also gone past the worst boss ever aka Ta'yak for 2/6 in 25 man.

UPDATE - Nov 09 19:13 by Starym
Apex join the Ta'yak 2/6 club and now we have a 4 way race for Garalon on our hands between them, Exodus, Wraith and Pulse. Genuine also downed Zor'lok and can now go for the rest if the instance, so they'll be catching up really quickly.

UPDATE - Nov 09 18:40 by Starym
Some lower tier action happening in 25 man, with Wraith, why so serious and Pulse going 2/6, but in quite different circumstances. Wraith got Ta'yak down World 9th, EU 5th, why so serious went a-skipping to a Gralon World 5th, EU 3rd and Pulse downed Ta'yak World 10th, EU 6th.

UPDATE - Nov 09 17:19 by Starym
And Exorsus have finished their three-boss freebie tour, downing Wind Lord Mel'jarak World 4th, EU 2nd and are now tied with vodka and going for that 5/6 and a chance at the final boss World First!

Meanwhile, in 10 man, У беляша continue on their skipping patch and down Garalon, World 4th* EU third*.

UPDATE - Nov 09 17:12 by Starym
Let's see where we're at right now, with all the skippage nonsense mostly behind us. Blood Legion and Method are both at 5/6, with BL having th advantage of 5 hours spent trying the last boss, but also the disadvantage of not that much sleep, as Method have gotten a sloid amount yesterday/today. Vodka are on the rise at 4/6 and might catch up to the leading two soon, if they also decide that sleep is for the weak!

We also have several other guilds joining in after having finally defeated Zor'lok, namely Exorsus at 3/6, Exodus at 2/6, Pulse, Wrath and Apex at 1/6.

If the final boss is even a little bit as challenging as Zor'lok was before the final nerf, this might turn out to be a good race after all, but all we can do is wait and see.

UPDATE - Nov 09 16:20 by Starym
And Method have caught up. They downed Amber Shaper Un'sok World second, EU first and are 5/6. Now the race is on for the final boss and it's a classic US vs. EU showdown!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 09 13:40 by Karsten
Back to back appearance from Exorsus: Ta'yak down after about an hour of trying for the EU 4th. They also downed Garalon shortly after, World 4th, EU second.

UPDATE - Nov 09 12:33 by Karsten
The Russian guild Экзорсус (Exorsus) manages to down Zor'lok in 25m for the World 5th and EU 2nd.

UPDATE - Nov 09 11:49 by Karsten
Must be fate: Almost at the same time do both Blood Legion and vodka report kills. Not five minutes apart. Blood Legion lays claim to the 25m World First on the Ambershaper, while vodka was hoping to catch up to the competition with a World 3rd Windlord. Congratulations to both! Is vodka tired by now? Blood Legion says they will try Shek'zeer despite the hour!

UPDATE - Nov 09 10:38 by Karsten
Exodus keeps slowly moving forward. US 4th Ta'yak!

UPDATE - Nov 09 09:38 by Karsten
Seems like a certain site is messed up again - vodka did indeed kill Zor'lok and did so in 25 man. Oh, and they also killed Garalon right now! A nice World 3rd and US 2nd. We will hold off updating the Zor'lok table for now because of tracking issues. 

UPDATE - Nov 09 08:51 by Karsten
Vodka, as well as Promethean, apparently decided to skip Zor'lok before the nerfs and have now downed the next in line - 25m Ta'yak. World 5th and US 2nd for vodka, US 3rd for Promethean.

UPDATE - Nov 09 08:20 by Karsten
Exodus starts their adventure into the instance with also killing our beloved Zor'lok. 25m World Third!

UPDATE - Nov 09 07:50 by Karsten
Blood Legion just closed the gap to Method and killed Mel'jarak - 25m World 2nd and US 1st!

UPDATE - Nov 09 06:05 by Starym
Second of the freebies is down for Blood Legion, Garalon 25 World second, US first! One more boss and we might have a race yet!
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 09 05:25 by Starym
And Blood Legion continues on the path of the 3 free bosses, downing the first one, Ta'yak World 4th, US 1st.

UPDATE - Nov 09 04:57 by Starym
We have a World second, US first on the currently most important boss in the raid, Zor'lok! Blood Legion have secured the perhaps most meaningful second kill, aside from the final boss in this raid.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 09 04:24 by Starym
And who else would get a kill but one of our exclusive kill-getters for this evening. Paragon have gone 4/6 by taking down Wind Lord Mel'jarak 10 man, World First. No screenshots from them for these first four bosses since all but the first (pre-nerf) were basically as easy as Normal modes.

UPDATE - Nov 09 03:56 by Starym
On they go, showing no signs of stopping. Method have downed Wind Lord Mel'jarak World first in 25 man and we strangely still don't have any other kills on Zor'lok.
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 09 03:00 by Starym
And the Method/Paragon show continues, with DREAM Paragon extending their conquest of 10 man with the World second/first non-skip on Garalon.

UPDATE - Nov 09 02:30 by Starym
Method just got 25 man Garalon down World First, and now we are coming to the interesting part, as we don't really know how difficult the next few bosses will be. Can they measure up to Zor'lok?
Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 09 02:06 by Starym
Two more guilds decided to skip in 10 man, with У беляша and Crimson Blade downing Blade Lord Ta'yak.

UPDATE - Nov 09 01:59 by Starym
Ok so I know I said very quickly but this is a bit ridiculous. Paragon have also downed Blade Lord Ta'yak just now on their first try...World third, first non-skip. They're mentioning SLIGHT differences in difficulty between the first two bosses, interesting.

"Trash was harder than the boss" - Seita, GM of Paragon

UPDATE - Nov 09 01:55 by Starym
And we have a 10 man World First! DREAM Paragon have downed Imperial Vizier Zor'lok just now and can now clean up at least the second two bosses very quickly.

UPDATE - Nov 09 01:52 by Starym
Here's a bit of a fun (and devastating) fact for you (and Blizzard): before the final nerf came, both Method and Paragon had 1% wipes. That is all.

UPDATE - Nov 09 01:21 by Starym
And here's the World fist/third on Blade Lord Ta'yak by Method. As expected it took all of 50 minutes! Now let0s see

"3 pulls for 2nd boss, not sure if heroic or normal" - Sco, GM of Method

And the killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 09 01:05 by Starym
I though it would be nice to say a few words about our fallen hero, a eulogy, if you will.

You were there for us, oh Zor'lok, when all seemed casual. Kills within an hourof a raid opening, whole raids devoured in no more than 1 reset, and kills coming down within minutes of each other. Your kind was mistreated before, with Gara'jal also receiving a swift bat of the nerf after some "creative" mechanics were employed to down him and the playing field had to be leveled. His reign was very short lived, but you, you lasted a whole THREE DAYS, my friend. Epic is a word thrown around so lightly in this game, but you, sir, earned it.

Even after they threw their "balance" and "tweaks" at you the first time, you persisted, killing more and more raiders and showing them what a boss should be. But, alas, some were angered by your defiance, seeing your skill as an insurmountable barrier and decided to go kill your weak sibling, Normalzor'lok, thus ignoring you and killing your brethren further into the dungeon. And then the final blow came, a second wave of poison to weaken you and make you fail. It worked and you went down, taking many with you, thus ending your reign.

So here's to you! Perhaps you were random, perhaps you went left a bit too often, but you sure stood for something, and the other pillars of difficulty in this game salute you. You will be missed.

"We will not give in to the despair of the dark void. If Her will for us is to perish, then it shall be so." - Imperial Vizier Zor'lok's last words

The currently leading image in the "Immortalize Zor'lok" campaign

UPDATE - Nov 09 00:50 by Starym
And here we have an action shot of the moment he died:

UPDATE - Nov 09 00:32 by Starym
And the nerfs have teken effect. Method have downed our Hero, the champion of first bosses everywhere, Imperial Vizier Zor'lok! Considering how the second boss fell quickly to the skippers, we can expect him to go down reeeeally fast by Method, and if 10 man is any indication, so will Garalon.

Killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 08 23:42 by Starym
And the World first skippage Blade lord Ta'yak kill by Darkstorm killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 08 23:30 by Starym
And we have the inevitable consequences of skippage, Blizzard deciding to go back in and nerf/hotfix the boss some more:

I thought I'd hop back in to this thread to share a few additional changes that we'll be hotfixing to this encounter today much as we did yesterday:

*Zor'lok will now only summon one Echo for the entirety of the final phase of the fight on Heroic.
*When Zor'lok uses a major ability in the final phase on Heroic, the Echo will now pause longer before using its major ability, and vice-versa.
*Converted players will no longer take damage from Attenuation or Force & Verve while mind controlled.

Ofc we can't be sure that the skipping is the reason for the nerf, but it definitely didn't help.                               

UPDATE - Nov 08 23:13 by Starym
Aaaaand it's a clusterf**k. Several guilds are skipping the boss in both 25 and 10 man so we have some "results" to share with you. We'll be looking into this later, if the first boss gets killed before nerfs and will be adding a little * next to the guilds that skipped him, as it's basically an unfair competition at this point.

In any case, 25 man Blade Lord Ta'yak was downed by DakStorm and then later by why so serious, while in 10 man we have Eleven in the No.2 spot on the same boss.

Unfortunately this also confirms the hilariously low difficulty on the other bosses in the instance, and we'll see just how far these skippers get.

UPDATE - Nov 08 22:10 by Starym
And so Arctica continue on their merry skipping way, downing the third boss in 10 man, Garalon. This really doesn't bode well for the 25 man progression after Zor'lok, as the next two bosses seem very very easy in comparison. Wowprogress hasn't updated yet, but it should soon.
Here's the killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 08 20:27 by Starym
And here's the Blade Lord Ta'yak 10 man World First Arctica killshot:

UPDATE - Nov 08 19:20 by Starym
Well we have a World First! No, not that one, calm down. It seems some guilds are getting frustrated by Zor'lok and are skipping him to go further into the instance, and 10 man guild Arctica just got the World First on the second boss, Blade Lord Ta'yak. The final boss isn't accessible before all the rest are down, however so they will have to deal with Zor'lok eventually. Also, this basically means Arctica have given up on the idea of getting to the last boss this reset, as they had to kill Zor'lok in Normal mode to pass him, and since you have to kill all bosses on Heroic to get to Empress...

Hopefully this won't start a trend of guilds skipping the first boss only to get some World Firsts, in either race.

UPDATE - Nov 08 16:05 by Starym
Whoa...I was fully expecting it to be down along with a couple of other bosses when I woke up today, but I have to say this is the most glad I've been to see a boss NOT get killed!

It seems HUGE congratulations are in order for Blizzard devs as this hotfix was pitch.perfect. What I'm hering from several top guilds now is that the boss is in a really good place at the moment, almost perfectly tuned, whereas it was getting a little frustrating before. Really amazing job and if they can keep this up through the entire instance this really is shaping up to be one of the best raids since, well, at least before Cataclysm.

Also the Imperial Vizier has found the top guilds to be so little challenge that he's set up a Twitter account to pass the time as they wipe and run back to him, so check it out @ImperialVizier.

UPDATE - Nov 08 06:05 by Starym
And the hotfixes/balance changes to the impregnable fortress that is the first boss have gone live a while ago, so now it's just a matter of time until we see if they truly were just tweaks to make it a little more possible or actual nerfs. Some EU guilds might have taken this time to sleep (I know, sleeping at night is WEIRD, right?) so we should give it a little time to see just how drastic the changes were. Hopefully the boss will survive this and fight on for the "toughest entry boss ever" title.

UPDATE - Nov 07 23:15 by Starym
Well, it was inevitable I suppose, it is "only" the first boss after all. Now these "quality of life" and "balance" issues they're trying very hard to not sound like nerfs are clearly that and we should expect a kill within an hour of them going online. Hopefully these are truly just minor tweaks but even those can be enough considering the amount of time guilds have spent on the encounter.

The Heroic Zor'lok encounter is currently more difficult than intended. While we prefer to avoid changes to encounters in the midst of progression, we would like to fix a few quality of life issues and make some targeted balance changes that do not invalidate the efforts that guilds have put into learning the encounter so far. Later today a hotfix will make the following adjustments:

Zor'lok's Echoes will pause briefly before beginning to cast Song of the Empress.
Zor'lok's berserk timer has been increased slightly.
Zor'lok will no longer summon Echoes of Force and Verve during the final phase of the encounter.

UPDATE - Nov 07 19:15 by Starym
More instance woes. This time around it's the "Transfer Aborted: Instance not Found" variety. I'm pretty sure it's just another of Zor'lok's tactics to survive longer and claim the title of longest first instance boss EVER (I think that honor belongs to Razorgore), that guy DOES NOT want to die.

UPDATE - Nov 07 16:43 by Starym
It seems the EU will have at least a little use out of being a day late for once. Several top guilds have taken the fact that the first boss is so challenging, which the US guilds found out after hours upon hours of tries, and used it to their advantage by clearing Heroic Mogu'shan Vaults instead!

UPDATE - Nov 07 15:44 by Karsten
The EU servers have been up for about an hour now, but there are no new developments on the Zor'lok progress. Let's see if the fabled Europeans can defeat the boss no US guild could beat within the last day.

UPDATE - Nov 07 05:43 by Starym
A little more info on the Raid ID bug, apparently the initial reason it even happened was because of another, different bug in the raid itself. the final trash pull before Zor'lok was bugged and players couldn't interact with it at all and so they all went out to reset the instance so they could pull the pack. This was what caused the initial Raid ID bug and a lot of the players were saved to a random ID.

Another issue that has come up is Blood Legion's server, Illidan crashing due to Galleon spawning and destabilizing it (which has been a known issue for a few weeks now). So yea, so far this reeeeally hasn't been Blood Legions Tier, hopefully they can recover from these pretty serious setbacks. Luckily the first boss seems seriously hard and so they won't be loosing THAT much ground.

UPDATE - Nov 07 04:10 by Starym
Six hours. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok has been alive for six hours. With such an impressive feat as the first boss of a raid, one has to wonder: who is this man/insect/whatever? How does he do it? What makes him special? We may never know. Or we may know, like, right now as we check out some videos from the beta:

UPDATE - Nov 07 01:38 by Starym
It seems the problems persist, as even though Blizzard GMs are fixing the issues of the affected people, it just keeps happening to different members of the raid, and a lot of time has already been lost on Zor'lok progress. A fairly sad way to inaugurate the final stage of Tier 14, hopefully it will be completely fixed soon. And on a more personal note hopefully Wowprogress will be up soon! Seriously, though, wasn't Tier 13 supposed to be the weird one?

UPDATE - Nov 07 00:52 by Starym
Well, as with all good news there is usually some bad to go with it, and this one's pretty bad. Some US guilds are experiencing lockout bugs with the raid, with members being randomly saved to non-existing Raid IDs and being unable to play with the main group. This issue has affected at least Blood Legion that we know of and has been going on a while, and will definitely impact the standings. Exodus also had this issue pop up but were aparently able to solve it since it affected less players and they were saved to fewer IDs than Blood Legion's players (the BL guys have 5 different lockout IDs in their 25 man group).

UPDATE - Nov 07 00:05 by Starym
Very, very good news. Imperial Vizier Zor'lok, the first boss you meet in Heart of Fear has been alive for over TWO hours! That bodes very well for the rest of the instance's difficulty considering it took around 20 minutes for the first boss in Mogu'shan Vaults to go down, on the first try.

UPDATE - Nov 06 22:30 by Starym
Servers are up and have been for around 30 minutes, however Wowprogress is down at the moment so actual rankings might get a little tricky down the road, although at the beginning it should be ok since we have contact to the top 3 US guilds. Let the games begin!

UPDATE - Nov 06 20:05 by Starym
Aaaaand it's extended maintenance o'clock! Servers should be up an hour or so from now, so there's a bit more to go until all hell (also known as regular Heroic raiding) breaks loose.

UPDATE - Nov 06 18:40 by Starym
The US servers are still down at the moment but should be coming up within the hour if everything goes as usual, you can almost feel the anticipation and eagerness coming from across the Atlantic. Or maybe it's just a tumor, I should get that checked out, tbh.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Today's the day! The final leg of the Tier 14 race begins in the US with Heart of Fear Heroic mode. This Tier will be one of the more important ones for 25 man in recent memory, with all the changes happening, guilds dropping out etc. After Mogu'shan Vaults showed just who exactly the new top guilds are in both races these final two raids will be the definitive answer as to who exactly the top dog is. The last race was pretty tight but very short, not lasting more than 1 reset. However that was only the first instance and there should be a lot more going on this time around.
So get ready, because the competition hasn't been this close in a long time and it all starts today!

In case you want to read up on what exactly happened in Mogu'shan Vaults, who the top contenders are and what to expect, just head on over to the Mogu'shan Vaults Heroic pogress post. You can also check out some interviews with the No.1 guilds at the moment in 10 and 25 man, DREAM Paragon and Method.

The * mark means that the guild killed the boss by skipping the fist boss in the instance, Zor'lok.

25 man
World First Killshot

10 man

25 man
World First Killshot*   World First Killshot(non-skip)

10 man
World First Killshot*

25 man
World First Killshot

10 man
World First Killshot*

25 man
World First Killshot

10 man