And they did not exactly need the entire evening.
Method has claimed the World First kill of Mythic Vashnik the Malignant in The Venomous Abyss, defeating the boss after just 11 pulls.
It is Method's first World First boss kill of the current Season 2 raid and pushes the Race to World First into its next stage after an opening week dominated by gearing, split raids and surprisingly stubborn Heroic bosses.
Eleven pulls.
After almost a week of preparation, somebody finally remembered that World First bosses can occasionally die before everybody orders dinner.
Method Needed Just 11 Pulls
The kill was remarkably clean by modern Race to World First standards.
According to the first Mythic Vashnik kill report, Method defeated the encounter on pull 11.
For comparison, the bosses that eventually decide a Race to World First can require hundreds of attempts.
Liquid's previous Midnight victory ended with 455 pulls on the final boss before Midnight Falls finally died.
Vashnik was not interested in that kind of long-term relationship.
Method arrived.
Learned the Mythic changes.
Killed him.
Moved on.
Method’s Raid Was Only 308.3 Item Level
The kill is even more interesting when you look at the group that did it.
Method's raid reportedly averaged just 308.3 item level.
The composition used the traditional 20-player Mythic setup:
- 2 tanks
- 4 healers
- 14 DPS
The tanks were two Blood Death Knights, while the healing team consisted of Holy Paladin, Holy Priest, Restoration Shaman and Preservation Evoker.
The DPS roster included Arms Warriors, Assassination Rogues, Balance Druids, Beast Mastery Hunters, Devastation Evokers, Demonology Warlock, Windwalker Monk and Devourer Demon Hunter.
It is the sort of composition that immediately causes twenty class Discords to begin asking whether they should reroll.
Please give them at least an hour.
Vashnik Is About Control, Not Just Raw Damage
Vashnik is not simply a giant single-target target dummy with an inconvenient health bar.
The encounter revolves around three venom fountains representing Blood, Shadow and Flame.
When Vashnik uses Imbibe, the boss draws power from nearby fountains, while living venom adds spawn and attempt to reach the Malignant Cavity.
The group therefore has to control positioning, kill the correct adds and manage the different effects created by each fountain combination.
The Mythic Vashnik encounter adds further pressure to that structure, but the basic challenge remains the same:
control the room before the room controls you.
Method apparently solved that equation rather quickly.
The Race Has Already Produced Several Different Winners
One of the more interesting things about The Venomous Abyss so far is that the early World First kills have not simply belonged to one guild.
Consequence took the first Mythic Nek'zali kill.
Liquid claimed Mythic Entombed Sentinels.
xD secured The Lost Explorers.
And now Method owns Vashnik.
That makes the opening half of the raid considerably more varied than a race where Liquid or Echo simply enters first and sweeps every early encounter.
We looked yesterday at why Team Liquid spent roughly five and a half days gearing before properly entering Mythic.
Method was doing the same basic preparation on the European side.
Now those enormous split-raid spreadsheets are finally being converted into boss kills.
Eleven Pulls Does Not Mean Vashnik Is Easy
There is always a temptation to look at an 11-pull World First and conclude that Blizzard made the boss too easy.
That needs some context.
Method has spent months preparing for this raid.
Its players tested encounters on PTR, studied mechanics, optimized compositions, farmed gear across multiple characters and entered Mythic with professional analysts and raid leadership supporting every pull.
An ordinary guild encountering Mythic Vashnik does not automatically inherit all of that knowledge because Method killed him quickly.
The Race to World First is essentially what happens when World of Warcraft players turn preparation into an industrial process.
Sometimes the result is 455 pulls.
Sometimes the preparation works so well that a boss lasts 11.
The Hard Part of the Raid Is Still Ahead
Vashnik's death pushes Method deeper into The Venomous Abyss, but nobody expects the remainder of the raid to maintain this pace.
The Twin Fangs, The Coiled Altar and Ula'tek still sit farther down the progression path, and the final encounters are where Blizzard traditionally concentrates the truly unpleasant mechanics.
We have already seen what Ula'tek can do on a lower difficulty. Heroic alone survived for days before QingShui finally secured the first Heroic Ula'tek kill after Blizzard nerfs and repeated wipes.
Mythic is unlikely to be more charitable.
This is also where the enormous gearing investment from the opening week begins to matter.
Early bosses prove that your raid can execute.
Late bosses begin asking whether your characters have enough numbers to execute before the encounter removes the floor.
Method Is Officially in the Fight
Method has spent years remaining one of World of Warcraft's major progression guilds while Liquid and Echo have dominated much of the modern Race to World First conversation.
A World First Vashnik does not decide this race.
It does provide a useful reminder.
Method is still here.
And this time, they have a boss kill with a little gold number one beside it.
Mythic Vashnik the Malignant:
11 pulls.
308.3 average item level.
World First: Method.
The splits are finally over.
Now the Race to World First is starting to look like an actual race.
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