Note: We would like to thank the members of Exorsus (Alveona, GM) and Method (Voci, Raider) who took the time to answer our questions and helped us prepare this article.

With the release of the Tomb of Sargeras, Legion welcomes its fourth instance since its grand opening in August 2016. However, the PVE race has been a small letdown on Legion: the Emerald Nighmare was over quicker than anyone expected and Trial of Valor was limited to only three bosses. Also, the addition of artifact weapons and legendary items totally changed the PVE scene, pushing tons of guilds to retire from the World First Race because of the endless farming required to unlock all the traits. This will probably lead to a duel between Method and Exorsus for the first kill on the mighty Kil’jaeden.

Still, the Tomb of Sargeras looks to be a promising Raid and fans will be able to follow the race as close as possible thanks to a growing number of live streams from some top end guilds around the world.

Some details about the Tomb of Sargeras

The Tomb of Sargeras is the 4th Raid available on Legion. Lead by Kil’jaeden, the 9 Bosses will be available on Mythic difficulty as soon as the 27th of June in North America and the day after in Europe.

« Even with less encounters than Nighthold, we believe the race will be as long as the previous one especially because Kil’jaeden might take a bit longer than Gul’dan to kill »

Method addressing the difficulty of ToS.



Kil'Jaeden, last boss of ToS

Difficulty wise, the Tomb of Sargeras in Mythic difficulty looks very linear, with three relatively easy encounters and the last three who being very well tuned and tight fights. Both guilds believe the Fallen Avatar might be a very difficult one but also point to the Maiden of Vigilance as a complete, fun but hard encounter.

« Maiden of Vigilance looks to be a pretty challenging Boss but overall the fight could actually be quite fun »

responded Exorsus.

Both guilds expect Kil’jaeden to be significantly harder than Gul’dan who all things considered, was relatively easy to beat for a final Boss.

Speaking of Progress, top guilds got access to the Public Test Server (PTR) quite early this time, weeks only after the end of the race on Nighthold. This affected the quality of the testing and homework made by several organizations because some of their members were expecting a longer downtime before ToS, in order to rest after the months of preparation dedicated to the previous Raid. Exorsus addressed that point, saying its preparation wasn’t really optimal because of this lower downtime between those Raids.



Exorsus on Gul'Dan

Also, it’s worth adding that some guilds got some difficult times testing some encounters, with some strange tuning and bugs quite late into the PTR cycle. This might lead to some last-minute hotfixes from Blizzard, a worrying situation according to Exorsus because it can leads to overnight hotfixes like what Method experienced on Archimonde during WoD.

The preparation might also be distorted by the last hotfixes made around the 7.2.5 Patch, Blizzard usually release some modifications of specs and classes during the first week of Heroic, a move that can add more work for end game guild members who need to adapt to those changes after the first few HM clean.

Who might defeat Kil’jaeden first?

The clear-cut favorite: Method

For over a decade now, Method has been in the discussion for best guild in the World. Within the past year, the European squad kept on adding achievements to its name, recording a World First on Archimonde to close out Warlords of Dreanor but also took the crown during Trial of Valor with a WF on Helya.

However, 2016 hasn’t been a smooth ride for Method which lost some of its core members after the end of the WoD Progress. Those players went to create Serenity, which took second in both the Nighthold and the Trial of Valor. Still, the guild experienced a huge failure during NH: the squad was leading the race until the very last step; the Russian guild Exorsus overtook them on Gul’dan despite trailing Serenity for the past few days.

This collapse let to the departure of some of its best members who joined Method in order to clean ToS. With an unbelievable roster, and a very strong preparation (the guild plans to do 7 different runs on HM this week) Method is poised to dominate the content as they once did in WoD.

Exorsus, the challenger:

For years Exorsus has been raiding as an end game squad, scoring several top 10 kills. Still, the Russian guild really burst into the spotlight when it claimed the World First kill on Xavius, the last Boss of the Emerald Nightmare. This success took the fans by surprise because the guild completely destroyed the content, cleaning the Raid in less than 48 hours while most of its rivals were running splits in HM.

Still, Exorsus’success on Xavius wasn’t a fluke: the Russian guild ended the Nighthold on a tear to claim the World First kill on Gul’dan. But this amazing Progress took its tool of the roster, which would have preferred to get more time to rest before the opening of another PTR cycle. The guild declared its preparation to be solid but not optimal and given Method new line-up, Exorsus will once again play the challenger role.

With a very talented roster and given its track record on Legion, it’s safe to say Exorsus will probably push for a top spot. Another victory will absolutely solidify its position as one of the best PVE guild ever, joining Method, Nihilum/Ensidia and Paragon in an elite group of guilds owning several World First kills on the final Boss of a Tier.

How about the usual suspects?

Exorsus and Method look like the only major guilds to really compete for the top spot during the Tomb of Saregeras. The Top 10 looks really unclear right now because some of the best guilds in the World stopped fighting for the World First kill. Indeed, very famous guilds like Midwinter, SNF, Danish Terrace and From Scratch all decided to stop since the release of Legion.

The new artifact system really destroyed a lot of end game squads by creating an endless farm for artifact powers. While most top guild members used to take pause between two Tiers, this new content forced them to keep on griding on multiple alts. Also, the RNG behind legendary drops and the ilvl of most loots created a situation where the players have to stay very active to keep their characters on the edge.

While following the race has been made way easier and entertaining for fans thanks to live streams and constant updates on social networks, the Tomb of Sargeras might probably be limited to a two guild race between Method and Exorsus because of the shortage of strong guilds ready to challenge them.