It was bound to happen eventually. 51 days after normal mode Lich King became available (and hence 44 days after hard mode), Paragon of Lightning’s Blade (EU) became the first guild worldwide to defeat the Lich King on 25 player heroic mode difficulty, effectively clearing all available content in Icecrown Citadel. They earned the Light of Dawn achievement and title for defeating him, as well as the Realm First! Fall of the Lich King achievement and title “Bane of the Fallen King”.
Ensidia recently transfered to Lightning’s Blade to race Paragon to the world first achievement “on equal ground”, as they complained that their previous server of Tarren Mill was too unstable. Guess Saronite Bombs couldn’t help them this time!
Currently, 160 guilds worldwide have defeated all heroic content in Icecrown Citadel except for the Lich King. Here are the current number of guilds that have beaten each encounter in ICC25, as of March 26th, 2010, according to wowprogress.com, in increasing order:
- Heroic Lich King: 1
- Heroic Professor Putricide: 171
- Heroic Sindragosa: 264
- Heroic Lady Deathwhisper: 607
- Heroic Festergut: 928
- Heroic Deathbringer Saurfang: 950
- Heroic Valithra Dreamwalker: 1052
- Heroic Blood-Queen Lana’thel: 1052
- Heroic Blood Prince Council: 1291
- Heroic Rotface: 1495
- Heroic Lord Marrowgar: 1640
- Heroic Gunship Battle: 1682
- Normal Lich King: 1829
- Normal Sindragosa: 4711
- Normal Blood-Queen Lana’thel: 6778
- Normal Professor Putricide: 9537
- Normal Valithria Dreamwalker: 10005
- Normal Blood Prince Council: 13129
- Normal Rotface: 15843
- Normal Festergut: 16971
- Normal Deathbringer Saurfang: 32493
- Normal Gunship Battle: 32781
- Normal Lady Deathwhisper: 32806
- Normal Lord Marrowgar: 33426
A lot of people will view this great achievement as a milestone in WoW history or claim that the game has been beaten, or too easy, or many other things. However, looking at that list, there are only a couple hundred guilds and hence a thousand or two players actually anywhere near defeating the Lich King on heroic in the coming months. A lot of guilds will be satisfied killing normal mode Lich King, and for them that is the end of the game. I think this is great evidence that the game is well-tuned. The best hardcore players spent about 2 months to clear ICC heroic, most hardcore guilds will take a few more, and many players will get to see his normal mode version die.
Even if only 50,000 guilds see normal mode Lich King die, thats still less than 1% of WoW’s 12 million subscribers that get to see the “end of the game”. If anyone claims that Paragon’s victory shows this game is “too easy”, I will have to strongly disagree with them.
Wow, Ensidia continues to prove how shameless they are. And they’ve been beaten on most world firsts lately, which has got to make them feel like scrubs.
Well, at least I think Ensidia is being a good loser.
http://www.ensidia.com/forum_topic.php?forum_id=1&topic_id=29983
They would have to. They really lost some face over the whole Saronite Bombs thing. :\
I love the breakdown of the numbers and the insight to the “too easy” idea. Nice work hearthbourne.
Heartbourne* ?
Hearthborne is what we all call him when he’s not looking.
It’s an in-joke, kinda. I called him that a few times when he first started working at the other site. I’ve never lived it own.
50,000 x 25 = more than 1% of 12 million.. Just sayin..