Another World of Warcraft patch means another raid, and another raid means that the Race to World First will continue.
Normally a two-headed race with the likes of Echo from Europe and Liquid from North America, both of these guilds have been closely duking it out since Battle for Azeroth in order to claim the title of World First Raider.
This time around, with the release of WoW Shadowlands 9.2, the Sepulcher of the First Ones will be the newest raid to conquer. So, who will it be? Echo or Liquid?
UPDATED - Echo becomes the first guild to take down The Jailer.
Echo finally put an end to one of the most difficult RWF races yet after they took down the Jailer in 277 pulls.
The European guild outplayed North America's Liquid in the final three bosses.
Additionally, defeating the Jailer makes the European guild the undisputed best in the world for all of Shadowlands as after losing the Castle Nathria RWF to start the expansion, they’ve now managed to take both Sanctum of Domination and Sepulcher of the First Ones back to back.
RWF nears its endgame as both Liquid and Echo reach The Jailer
In what has been the longest Race to World First since the event started being streamed, as of March 21st, the world's two top guilds, Echo and Liquid, are finally on the final boss of the Sepulcher of the First Ones - The Jailer.
This comes after Liquid took world-first Anduin in nail-biting fashion but were overtaken by Echo on both the Lords of Dread and Rylegon.
Three guilds all tied up going into Anduin
A three-way tie between Liquid, Echo, and surprise-performer, SK Pieces, is heading Anduin Wrynn's way.
This comes after each of the guilds got pushed to the brink against Sepulcher of the First Ones' seventh boss, Halondrus the Reclaimer in which they all took over 310 pulls to defeat.
Europe's Echo catch up
Echo have caught up to Liquid after taking down the first five bosses in Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones.
After performing the same spamming of Normal and Heroic as the North American guild, Echo have caught up alongside Liquid and are now tied up in the Race to World First.
Liquid take the lead on the Race to World First
Liquid have taken the lead on the Race to World First for Sepulcher of the First Ones after taking down five Mythic bosses.
After hours of spamming specific Normal bosses utilizing crowdsourcing as a form of getting all of their raiders their tier gear, the two-time World First champions began the race by taking down four Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones bosses in a few hours on Wednesday and followed it up by taking down a fifth to start Thursday.
First Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones boss is downed
After 56 pulls, the US guild, The Early Shift, has taken down the first Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones boss, The Vigilant Guardian.
This comes as a shocking surprise as it was done by a non-Race to World First contender.
Prior to Sepulcher of the First Ones, The Early Shift defeated the Sanctum of Domination at US 395th and World 1092nd, a decrease from their Castle Nathria performance. Due to the nature of the guild's past, it's improbable that the guild will take on the likes of Echo and Liquid and uncertain if they will want to do so.
Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones is live
Both Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones and the last three bosses of the raid's Heroic version are live.
Guilds around the world have been trying their hand at the last three bosses, Lords of Dread, Rylegon, and The Jailer on Heroic. Neither The Jailer or a Mythic boss has been killed.
Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones Release Date
Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones releases on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.
As per usual, players can expect servers to go down for maintenance at around 10 am EST before going live a few hours later with the last three Heroic bosses and the Mythic version of Sepulcher of the First Ones.
Top Guilds heading into the Race to World First
As aforementioned, the Race to World First for the Sepulcher of the First Ones will mainly be spearheaded by two guilds, Echo and Liquid, but fans and non-fans of the Race to World First can look forward to other guilds such as Pieces and BDGG making waves of their own.
READ MORE: WoW Shadowlands 9.2 Cosmic Flux Guide: Best Ways to Get it, Locations & Uses
Ever since the Battle for Azeroth expansion, both Echo and Liquid have really showcased themselves as the two guilds to beat. To start the expansion, Liquid, then Limit, started red hot and looked to win the whole thing for the first time during the first raid of the expansion, but Echo, then Method back before the members shifted guilds, managed to pounce on Liquid's mistakes, and narrowly took World First for Uldir.
After that, that very same guild took the next two raids, Battle of Dazar'alor and The Eternal Palace, and looked poised to close out the expansion. But then, Liquid shocked the world and took World First for Ny'alotha, the Waking City - this is where the rivalry truly began.
Once in Shadowlands, the Race to World First has been as hype as ever as multiple storylines came alive: Can Echo's members bounce back? or Can Limit prove that they are deserving of a World First title? What ensued was Liquid taking their second World First in a row as they dominated Castle Nathria but later underperformed come Sanctum of Domination in which Echo took.
Now, with only one raid remaining in Shadowlands and both Echo and Liquid tied at one apiece so far, Sepulcher of the First Ones will be the decider in who not only wins the Race to World First for the raid but who takes the expansion.
Toughest Bosses in Mythic Sepulcher of the First Ones
For WoW 9.2, Blizzard took a different approach when it came to releasing the new raid. Normally, the new raid releases on the patch's week two start date, with both Normal and Heroic difficulties. This leaves week three as the official release period for Mythic.
This time around, it's been staggered. Instead of Normal and Heroic releasing with all of its bosses, Sepulcher of the First Ones went live with the first eight and left the last three to release alongside the Mythic difficulty the following week. On top of that, the last three bosses weren't available for testing in the Public Test Realm (PTR). This means that our predictions for the toughest bosses in Sepulcher of the First Ones will pure be speculation as well as resting on past raids.
With that, here are our toughest bosses in Sepulcher of the First Ones.
1. The Jailer
Although he's one of the bosses that hasn't been seen or tested, as the final boss of both the raid and the expansion, we expect The Jailer to be the toughest fights in the whole raid, and possibly one of the toughest bosses in raid history.
READ MORE: WoW Shadowlands 9.2 DPS Rankings: What are the best specs to play in the new update?
Usually, the last boss of an expansion is Blizzard's way of combining all of what they've learned during the expansion and putting it into fruition. This time around, with the added advantage, or disadvantage if you're a guild attempting him, of having zero eyes on him during PTR, it'll up the hardness factor by quite a bit.
2. Anduin Wrynn
It may come as a surprise that Anduin Wrynn, the eighth boss of Sepulcher of the First Ones comes in as our number two. Yes, it's true that there are two other bosses that we haven't seen, but going by what Heroic has to offer and noting that he's already received nerfs, Anduin Wrynn is our number two.
3. Rygelon
Similar to our Jailer choice, we're going with Rygelon as our number three solely because it's the second to last boss of an end expansion raid.
For all intents and purposes, Blizzard thus far has described Rygelon as this expansion's Algalon the Observer in not just the lore but the need to fight wisely. Going by that, he's our number three.