It’s been another big day in the Aberrus RWF, with the majority of it spent progressing on Scalecommander Sarkareth, the final boss of the raid. In a flip of the usual way this plays out, it was Echo who went ahead and took the first pulls and progress on the boss, as Liquid had only poked at Sarkareth a few times before going to bed the night before. By the end there would be more dramatic decisions taken, some wild theories pop up and even a few kills here and there!
The day started like the others, with Echo and Method playing catch-up with Liquid, pushing on Echo of Neltharion and seeing who could get that World 2nd. It took about 7 hours but in the end it was the boss’s namesake that took the kill, and we now once again had a face-off between the top EU and top US guild on the final boss of the raid. Sticking with the 8th boss for a while, Method needed a bit more time to get past it, with the usual 3 and 1% wipes aplenty, taking 5 more hours to get Neltharion down after the World 2nd. That was it for the day when it comes to pre-Deathwing Deathwing kills, but there were plenty of pulls and guilds going at the boss:
Back to the final boss, Echo had around 3 hours on Sarkareth before Liquid woke up, and they used their time wisely, getting into phase 3 of the fight, with a 65% best. We then had a very entertaining period when first Echo and Liquid, and a few hours later all three top guilds progressed on boss 9 side by side, showcasing different strategies and learning more and more about the fight as it went on. Unfortunately it was cut somewhat short, as Echo called it a very early night, as part of their gradual preparations for the weekly EU reset on Wednesday, which comes in at 6 AM now. That means that they have to go to bed earlier and earlier so as to be well rested when the reset comes, and that meant we only had about 3 and a half hours of Liquid vs. Echo live. Method were doing well as well, but were a couple of hours behind.
Then it was time for the shoe to head on over to the other foot, as Liquid were watching and learning from Echo’s strats this time around, as their plan to not pull Sarkareth the night before paid off. They were bringing the boss down much faster as they didn’t have to learn a lot of the fight elements, and could instead use Echo’s info, in much the same way the EU guilds had done from Liquid with the earlier bosses. Echo left things off at a 49% best, so let’s take a look at their most successful try, and also get our first look at the final fight of Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible:
Method pushed on for a while longer and got the boss down to 59% before calling it a night, and from then on it was a Liquid evening and night! The guild quickly caught up and surpassed Echo, only needing 27 pulls to move into the lead with a 10% margin, compared to Echo’s 36 pulls on their best try. The top US guild ended their day at a 37% best, but there was a little more to it than that… but first let’s take a look at how all the pulls went for the top 3 guilds:
The end of Liquid’s day came a lot earlier than usual… the end of their streaming day, that is. After figuring some stuff out when they were done with the dinner break, Liquid decided that they did not want to share the rest of their attempts for the day, and would pull a little bit off-stream and then get an early night.
This was around 5-6 hours before Liquid’s usual raid stop, but they had already been talking about stopping earlier the day before, so it was probably closer to 4 hours. We don’t know how much or how long they pulled the boss after this, as they turned their streams and data collection off, but the decision did cause some in the community to get upset. Now, this is an entirely legitimate strategy, and one that Echo had used in the past as well (most notably in Castle Nathria), so there isn’t anything wrong with it, other that it causing a reaction from certain race watchers.
Their strategy of holding off on giving the EU guilds information worked for them at least once already, and it really did look as if they figured something significant out over their dinner break, which they really did not want to share. So let’s take a look at Liquid’s best pull, coming in at 37.2%, just before they figured out whatever it is they figured out, with some analysis from the Liquid stream caster couch!
And that was about it for the day, as the rest of the night was spent with BDG and Instant Dollars going at it, first on Magmorax, where ID grabbed the World 5th, and then on Echo of Neltharion, where BDG is in the lead at the moment, as both guilds race against FatSharkYes for the World 4th on the 8th boss. We now have 3 guilds progressing on boss number 9, 3 on boss 8, Conspiracy alone on boss 7, 11 on 6, 94 on 5, 216 on 4, 183 on 3 and 302 on boss number 2!
For the end I’ll entertain you with an interesting theory/giant wishful thinking, as several factors have led some to think that there may be more to the Sarkareth fight than meets the eye! The encounter is relatively short for an endboss and the road to it has been… well, short, with undertuned bosses even after buffs. And all this could potentially add up to… a Mythic phase or even boss! Now, opinion is split between having an actual, honest-to-goodness separate Mythic only boss a-la Sinestra or Ra-Den, and just having the Mythic phase feature an extra boss, like Margok + Cho’Gal in Highmaul. The identity of the “add” also varies depending on who you ask, from Fyrakk to N’Zoth himself (or just a Void Lord), and it’s all just very much a fun theory. Personally I’ve found this specific list of bosses pretty fishy since the day they were announced, as Sarkareth is really not endboss material, especially with THREE main villains currently running around and the fire one being directly responsible for the patch zone.
Unfortunately the more likely scenario is that none of this is true and we may be looking at a single-reset race or, possibly worse, one that ends directly after the US reset. We don’t know just how close Liquid are to a kill with their new-found knowledge, but we’ll soon find out, as tomorrow may just be the last day there’s a World Fist to be had in Aberrus!
And, just so as not to end the article with a whimper, here’s Instant Dollars’ dramatic 0.7% wipe on Magmorax, only a few pulls before they kill:
And that’s it, for the final final thing of the article I’ll leave you with the new and improved Raider.IO progress image, as Sarkareth has buffed up!
Previous entries:
Aberrus Mythic Race to World First Day 5: Echo Catches Up, Then Liquid Takes Echo of Neltharion Down
Aberrus Mythic Race to World First Day 4: 3 World Firsts, 1 Disappointment
Aberrus Mythic Race to World First Day 3: 4/9, Liquid Enter, Many Guilds Compete
Aberrus Mythic Race to World First Day 2: 3/9, Many New Faces
