Method's Post-Raid Show at Red Bull Gaming Studio

Live Posted 2019/02/06 at 12:01 PM by perculia

World First Mythic JainaWatch Method - After Raid Show @ Red Bull Gaming Sphere London from redbullesports on www.twitch.tvMythic Coverageraid team kill reactionsdefeated Jaina againcommentary on the fightFanbytehereInterview DetailsRed Bull's Website

US guild Limit had a headstart, but it was Method who emerged victorious in the Battle Of Dazar'Alor Race To World First. After taking down the first eight bosses with ease, Lady Jaina Proudmoore, the final boss, seemed almost impossible to defeat. However, after 347 attempts and a change of strategy, Method managed to take her down and claim the title as the first guild in the world to complete the raid.

Over the next two days, Method will be joining us for a special Post Raid Show on Red Bull Esports Twitch to reveal all the ins and outs of how they defeated all nine bosses, and take on a Heroic Battle Of Dazar'Alor raid with their fans.

Starting from 6pm UK time today, we’ll be bringing you plenty of raid analysis from the Method guild members as well as some special guests, including Preach. Not only that, you’ll also get the chance to submit your own questions to the team via Twitch, so this is not to be missed!

interview with Red Bullhere

I think the bosses were good, and the atmosphere in the whole raid was great, but I think it was a bit ruined that the first eight bosses went down so quickly, because the top raiding guilds put months and months of effort into preparing for a raid. To see the first eight bosses drop so fast, it’s not exactly super rewarding for the amount of time and effort you put into the raid at that point. Obviously Jaina made up for it. She was a hard boss - it was a good fight, but it would have been better if some of the bosses were a bit harder.

Preparation

As soon as you finish a tier, you think about preparing for the next one.

Every day, they work on AP World Quests and Island Farming--sometimes up to 500 Islands a week, using special consumables to clear islands in 2-3 minutes. The German crew at Method, according to Deepshades, is the best at AP farming! You need to farm AP to keep increasing the Heart of Azeroth to unlock traits.

The goal for Heart of Azeroth was 42, but after people hit that earlier-than-expected (two weeks before the raid), they started to push for 43.

Method has the same access to raid bosses on the PTR as every other player--usually one hour of testing and filled with bugs.

Method also farmed Titan Residuum hardcore, which allowed them to stockpile currency to later purchase powerful Azerite pieces in Season 2. Method ran many raids with viewers, all of the same armor type, to funnel pieces to the main raiders to scrap for Titan Residuum. For popular streamers, one main raider could do a raid with entirely viewers, and whoever completed it the fastest got a prize!

The guild is millions in debt, between 40 to 100 millions. They cleared out 3 Auction Houses for crafting materials. Then individuals bought BoEs across many realms to increase their item level.

US vs EU Restart time

NA always starts the raid race 16 hours ahead of EU. It felt pretty bad for Method starting this time, because they woke up and 7 bosses were downed. They hoped the difficulty curve would ramp up so the NA time advantage wouldn't be the deciding factor for the kill.

Method would like a world-wide raid release, just like expansions. It would also be exciting for casting!

Viewer questions

Dazar'alor reminds Method of Antorus as far as the difficulty curve. As far as the theme, it reminds them of Throne of Thunder.

The guild didn't feel a lot of pressure, as the week went on and they got closer, from other guilds because they knew they were close. However, Twitch chat can exacerbate mistakes, leading to players feeling titled due to all the negative feedback. You need to block interference out and stick to the plan.

Cayna had a lot of distractions in the Red Bull Gaming Sphere and they had to put a screen around his desk.

Raid Comp toolAbout each boss

For the early bosses, they used unconventional comps to make sure people in on Jaina could get loot traded to them if needed.

For bosses that are easy like Grong on the PTR, they don't really prepare further. They may check to see what American guilds do, to gauge the difficulty. For Grong, once you've seen 25% of the encounter, you've seen the entire fight. Cayna respecced for healing on Grong, but didn't change his Azerite, since the boss was easy. Grong felt like a "perfect second boss" with some personal responsibility even though it is simplistic.

Jadefire Masters was a surprise--people thought it would be more difficult. Big Dumb Guild found a strategy that cheesed the encounter, which Method later used as well. Method expected this boss to have a very intensive last phase, as PTR testing was difficult. The show highlighted funny clips of players going through the maze, like Chrispotter bouncing through all the rings.

Method struggled with some Phase 1 Opulence mechanics.

For Conclave of the Chosen, they had to change up their kill order of the the Loa and managed to kill it the pull after they changed. You can actually outrun Bwonsamdi's Wrath to increase the time between debuffs.

Method played poorly on Mekkatorque, it should have been a 15-20 attempt boss. They also ran out of time on Heroic week to do their usual test raid on this boss, as they got delayed with crafting items. Method also forgot that when you are smaller, you deal 99% less dps.

Defeating Jaina

In Phase 1 the ranged felt like they were playing a mini game, while melee were just following the boss; no idea what ranged do; there's ranged, melee, and then Narcolies.
Some early strategies involved pulling Jaina off the ship for Ice Nova.

The fog range was a bit weird - targets out of range still show in line of sight on frames, but you can't actually hit them with heals, grips, etc. Similarly, they could see and target Jaina, complete a full cast on her, but it wouldn't actually hit her.

Lots of healer CD freedom in the first two phases, while very meticulous in the early progression, by the late pulls they were going full damage. Healers combined went from doing 6-7k DPS to nearly 25k, saving considerable time.

Every guild will have a learning curve when they hit the intermission that will slow down progression; Method tried many different tricks and tactics throughout the course of the fight in order to make it easier, such as monitor tricks to change brightness and contrast in order to make it easier to see, but none of it really helped. In early pulls they used speed pots to get through the phase quicker, though that changed to DPS potions in order to push damage later on.

Just before transition, you have to reset your Chill stacks with the last fire, or else you'll start chilled and slower than everyone else, falling behind and slowing the entire group down.

Shamans dropping Spiritwalker's Grace for Wind Rush Totem made the intermission harder on them, but easier on the rest of the group.

While still playing a Goblin, Josh had problems seeing his character in relation to the all the effects he had to dodge. He ended up making a simple WeakAura to put a red square over his character model to help him see his hitbox and dodge those mechanics.

When the intermission was buffed to 4 immediate stacks, they had to go to 5 healers, but it ended up a good thing, since they practiced so much that when the change was reverted the phase felt easy for them.

Realizing that the movement was always in the same pattern made the phase a lot easier to handle as well, playing follow the leader with two marked players using Fogbreaker, Light of the Sea to see further through the fog, though there was still some RNG with which side Jaina decided to spawn on. Track Humanoids was useful, though Spectral Sight didn't work to see through the fog; interestingly Eagle Eye and Far Sight do work and removes the fog, allowing players to see where mechanics like Icefall are.

As soon as Jaina is interrupted, the big tornadoes disappear, but the smaller ice shards do not and they can be hard to see once everyone gets grouped up, spirit link is down, etc.

With a clean transition, the second phase ended up being one of the easiest parts of the encounter. Grips helped a ton!

The first barrel felt the hardest, due to high stacks and ticking damage. During progress, they initially ran Disc/Holy, then they went double Holy for the raid cooldowns to make progression healing easier, but the intention was always to swap back to Disc in order to push out extra damage once they got comfortable. By the time they swapped back to 4 healing and double Disc, everything felt much smoother.

Based on Heroic, they initially thought the Ice Wall would be a massive DPS check, but they ended up splitting damage to kill the wall just in time, while also putting extra damage into Jaina to make the last phase that much easier.

Despite the hours of theorycraft and practice, lots of "helpful comments" came in along the way, such as "try doing more Wall damage" when wiping to the wall, or asking if they tried to Banish the Tide Elemental after 250-something pulls.

They quickly realized there was no way they could break out Ice Blocks 1mil+ health in time to also kill the boss, which led to a zerg strategy of just burning the boss.

The value of the Troll racial didn't initially occur to them, until they started realizing that different players had different duration debuffs for no particular reason; even after changing, a lot of viewers didn't pick up on the fact that it was because of Da Voodoo Shuffle, rather than Berserking or Regeneration.

The zerg strat wasn't actually that hard; most viewers didn't realize that low % wipes weren't due to lack of damage or healing, just someone making ridiculous mistakes. A lot of the strategy was as easy as "stay on the marker" or move out and die. The hardest part of the last phase was simple getting through the earlier phases smoothly. Healing in the last phase was meticulously scripted, everything assigned in a spreadsheet. A lot of props to the healers and especially Priests for extra damage, dispels, and grips.

Some insane tactics they thought about along the way included moving very fast while getting frozen would cause the icicle to off center and miss the frozen player, so they thought about using gateways at just the right time before freezing, though it added a lot of individual timing and responsibility; if done incorrectly, the icicle could also end up pointed right at the raid! Another involved using stacking the raid in a raised spot just past Nathanos which wouldn't be hit by Broadsides while killing the Tide Elemental. They even thought that if Shamans could never die while Iceblocked using the right traits, simply sitting there for a few weeks while Absolute Corruption slowly killed the boss (over the course of about two weeks!). In the end, the zerg was the most reliable and easiest strategy.

They timed movement so that the icicles coming off the tank would go toward a player in the raid, then always moving as a group to dodge the entire mechanic at once.

They actually had to stop DPS for a moment to stop her from jumping to the middle early. In the end, splitting damage between the wall and Jaina amounted to an extra 4% of her health.

Comment by swiftdh0first eight bosses went down so quicklyComment by prophet001No use for Method.

Rooted for them in the last 4 WF races but after watching Josh's video where Cayna pops in on stream and says "I'm muted right" and proceeds to dump all over LIMIT...

...I'm done with them.

That's not someone I want to root for. No more views, subs, likes, "Go Method" posts from me.

Done with them.Comment by MicroMachine296Removed Method won fair and square, and have all the bragging rights. Limit's players simply did not have the strat, composition, and skill level needed to kill the boss week 1. Method did. Method is much better than Limit as a guild. They have a more consistent roster, they have better communication skills, and they have smarter players. If Limit wants to win, they need to get better. Simple as that.Comment by prophet001Removed Method won fair and square, and have all the bragging rights. Limit's players simply did not have the strat, composition, and skill level needed to kill the boss week 1. Method did. Method is much better than Limit as a guild. They have a more consistent roster, they have better communication skills, and they have smarter players. If Limit wants to win, they need to get better. Simple as that.Comment by zequillThat make me want to watch that video. Link and timestamp?Comment by perculiafirst eight bosses went down so quicklyComment by SeaMonsterKrilloOkay if you follow method and limit you would know that limit was dishing out an extreme amount of s*(^ talk and their "fan base" was horrible on methods streams. i honestly dont blame them for roasting them back (if they even did, i didn't hear them personally say anything so im not going to drink the kool-aid of assuming because a guy on the internet said it happened then it must of happened). calling them no lifers when they make a ton of money doing what they love to do is kinda low. i mean do you call a NFL player a no lifer because he plays a game all day and get paid insane amounts of money.

the stigma of gamers being awkward nerds needs to end last i check this is a form about wow (a video game) clearly you care to get on a form and talk about a game we love while simultaneously bashing anyone else that is also passionate about it. because at the end of the day if you dont think the players in method or limit or any guild in the top 100 are not as "passionate" about this game you part of the problem. the sheer insane amount of work that an average mythic players has todo is insane id never be able to commit that much time and i F(&%ing love this game. so instead of being bitter and "hating" being happy for other human beings for once.Comment by CreepercatNo use for Method.

Rooted for them in the last 4 WF races but after watching Josh's video where Cayna pops in on stream and says "I'm muted right" and proceeds to dump all over LIMIT...

...I'm done with them.

That's not someone I want to root for. No more views, subs, likes, "Go Method" posts from me.

Done with them.Comment by kajlesThe guild is millions in debt, between 40 to 100 millions. They cleared out 3 Auction Houses for crafting materials. Then individuals bought BoEs across many realms to increase their item level.Comment by MANU1234ok moving on tired of hearing about methodComment by LeftkeywestDidn’t even tune in this time. Got bland for me after the first one. Really hoping for Limit to pull through next tier, extremely tired of seeing all these “EU” and “Method” fanboys go crazy roasting NA.Comment by IcetoothInstead of having 10 different posts about getting Method getting a kill, how about compiling everything into one post? Can't find anything else on the front page other than this.

Also this way, the information isn't all over the place for anyone who actually is interested in this stuff.Comment by godlygamer911Shockingly there is not one in shape one in the bunch...Comment by NehcromI rather enjoyed watching the stream and was lucky enough to time it so I was watching when Jaina went down the first time. Congratulations to Method and hope we will see more streaming like this in the future :-)Comment by ArvediuNo use for Method.

Rooted for them in the last 4 WF races but after watching Josh's video where Cayna pops in on stream and says "I'm muted right" and proceeds to dump all over LIMIT...

...I'm done with them.

That's not someone I want to root for. No more views, subs, likes, "Go Method" posts from me.

Done with them.Comment by AelielCan't find anything else on the front page other than this.Shockingly there is not one in shape one in the bunch...The no life club.Comment by CynthiaShiraAs someone said before Method won because they played better simple as that,Limit had more ilvl,16 hours advantage,some free items 400 because they changed to Alliance to pick them and after they changed to the Horde.

Simple as that,I was watching the stream since Method began till they finish and the first few days there were a lot a lot of people writing bad things to them and saying NA is better than EU,and things much worse than that.

So no,Limit is not purity and perfect.Even now if you go to the forums of NA or to Twitter of Limit's players there is people talking really bad and rude about Method and even about Europe.I was in few forums of WoW official Europe and I just saw congrats to Method or Limit couldn't win with advantages but not bad talking about the whole Europe continent and his people a long with the players of Method as I saw in NA forums.

So as long as Method play good they will win,no matter how many advantages Limit use,or how many excuses like Limit doesn't stream to use exploits like in Helya or to don't reveal the super secret tactics they use that even doesn't work.

Congrats to Method and I hope Limit improve and stream also,then we can follow the race better and see who plays better.Also should be handy for Mythic raids it begins for the whole world the same day,NA,EU,Asia,Oceanic etc...Comment by ZurionLooks more like a Removed competition with all that Red Bull flying all over the place.Comment by AshleyAs someone said before Method won because they played better simple as that,Limit had more ilvl,16 hours advantage,some free items 400 because they changed to Alliance to pick them and after they changed to the Horde.

Simple as that,I was watching the stream since Method began till they finish and the first few days there were a lot a lot of people writing bad things to them and saying NA is better than EU,and things much worse than that.

So no,Limit is not purity and perfect.Even now if you go to the forums of NA or to Twitter of Limit's players there is people talking really bad and rude about Method and even about Europe.I was in few forums of WoW official Europe and I just saw congrats to Method or Limit couldn't win with advantages but not bad talking about the whole Europe continent and his people a long with the players of Method as I saw in NA forums.

So as long as Method play good they will win,no matter how many advantages Limit use,or how many excuses like Limit doesn't stream to use exploits like in Helya or to don't reveal the super secret tactics they use that even doesn't work.

Congrats to Method and I hope Limit improve and stream also,then we can follow the race better and see who plays better.Also should be handy for Mythic raids it begins for the whole world the same day,NA,EU,Asia,Oceanic etc...Comment by perculiaInstead of having 10 different posts about getting Method getting a kill, how about compiling everything into one post? Can't find anything else on the front page other than this.

Also this way, the information isn't all over the place for anyone who actually is interested in this stuff.