13/13M, US# 82. The War is Over!

Mythic Archimonde Defeated! US #82nd! Five months later, Mythic Hellfire Citadel clear and our 5th expansion completed! Realm First!

Archimonde progression was fantastic. Every night had the guild moving deeper into the fight or refining something that was meaningful. We wasted no nights on it. We did it well under our attempt target. We learned something and pushed forward every night. It was exceptionally organized progression with relatively few mistakes and a lot of very sharp catches by raiders. We spent no time spinning our wheels and wondering why something was working. Every night that we finished, we came back the next day with a solution the problem we had the prior night. And in the end, the strat was this:



In summary, it was progression done right.... a truly satisfying way to end such a grueling expac.

In Tyranny, we talk often about our guild history. It's natural for a guild whose history goes back to Karazhan (see the Gallery!) and whose list of Merit Badges looks like this (add in Server First Tier 7, Yogg+0, Heroic Lich King and Kil'Jaden, all pre-achievements). We've seen a lot. We got a lot of members who have seen a lot. At the top of that stack, there is our newest guild accomplishment... Mythic Archimonde, 13/13M US #82, Realm First.



This was near the top on the list of the hardest things we've ever done as a guild.

Don't get me wrong. There have been in other tiers, harder fights than those in Mythic Hellfire Citadel (thought it had some very demanding ones). And at different points in the game, we've been higher ranked for sure (hard to compare to the 20m new reality though). But in my opinion, what we did this tier, this expansion, is on the top level of the things this guild has ever achieved. This expansion was not for the faint hearted, or those who treat the hobby of hardcore raiding with the seriousness of playing some random console game. This was a raiding tier and expansion for those who were dedicated to raiding. It took building and maintaining a team, for 10 months, capable of one hell of a long, hard slog. We got the people, and because of their skill, character and attitude, we fought through to a strong US Top 100 Finish!

It was not an easy ride for us. We made a lot of mistakes going into WoD. We farmed 13/13M SoO for 44 weeks, and burned our roster - which barely changed through launch - out. We went into the expac underestimating how much different 20 man was from 25 man... the need for a smaller roster (we started with 33), more focused gear distribution, tighter player. The road to hell is paved with best intentions, they say, and we hit a hard bump at the end of Highmaul. It was a hard moment for the guild

And that's when things began to change for the better. New blood, new motivation, and a rebooted mindset got the guild through Highmaul, through the grinder that was Blackhand. And things were good. Little did we realize what was ahead of us: a nearly 5 month long and brutal march through artificially extended content (. To put things in perspective, most "progression" in this game has historically been done in 3.5 month spurts since Tier 11. You'd do all but the last two bosses in about two months, give or take, then you'd do the last two in about six weeks. It's a hard thing to be under the microscope with performance, checking ranking, looking through piles of data, for as long as HFC took (and not for us mind you... IS TAKING for the wider raiding community).

Most guilds can't do it. Guilds with raid histories going back 5, 6, 7 years are struggling hard. WoD has been tough on guilds as a whole for a lot of reasons. The comp and tuning complexities (compared to MoP) and step-up in difficulty of the raid model can really thrash a roster on a progression raid night. It's tricky to recruit for and just as hard to strat around un-ideal set ups. And then the game moves from the Imperator Grind to the Blackhand grind to the 5 month HFC grind. As I said, a lot of guilds found it too punishing to do. Individually, it's not for everyone to be sure. Does this sound familiar? Yeah. The strat for the expansion was the strat for Archimonde. Get your shit in order, and then...



And that we did... and more! We crushed it. Archimonde is dead and Tyranny has completed yet another tier and yet another expac, Realm First. We beat the game. Again.

It speaks immeasurably to the character of the raiders of Tyranny, from officers who have been here since Sunwell and ICC, to core raiders who made this place so much better just in the past 5-10 months, to trials here just a few months or few weeks, that we were able to attack this content as we did. From Hellfire Assault to Gorefiend to Archimonde, we never let the hard moments overwhelm us while always continuing to work through this extremely punishing instance. We had no favors done out for us this tier. We fought for every kill. I keep saying that because it's so true. If Tyranny's success in Dragon Soul ( Tier 13) was the story of the guild capping off an entire expac of rebuilding from the ruin of Tier 11, and it's success in SoO (Tier 16) was the story of Tyranny sprinting and moving faster than we even expected we could, then it's success in HFC was the story of the guild fighting for every inch and earning every bit of success it obtained - a respectable rank, an accomplished guild, a great group of people who are really passionate about raiding, and of course, a strong ending with another tier and expansion behind us. That's a hell of a story. Doing things that are hard are always the best stories, and completing this tier, for us or any guild able to do it, is damn hard.

I can't say again how proud I am of the guild, and of everyone who contributed to our success over the last 11 months. From the officers - the most collaborative, hardest working, loyal people I've ever met - to our core raiders who have such a sophisticated mind about the game... from folks who have just great strategic insights to folks who are awesome at trouble shooting to folks who just show up consistently, play at a high level and are the fun people to be around that make us what we are. It's been great all around. The rest deserved as we farm Mythic HFC and Blackhand mounts, is so richly deserved, as we prepare for Legion next year, and YET ANOTHER raid Tier.



The first mount of Mythic Archimonde went to Chibi. He earned it through a whole slew of contributions to making this build better since he joined near the end of Mythic Blackhand. But I also I think that this first award is symbolic of the strong and positive future Tyranny had ahead of it because Chibi is not alone in his efforts. Many, many people on our roster are just as engaged and other, more recent faces want to be. Chibi and his generation of Tyranny raiders represent the bright future of Tyranny that will, in years ahead, lengthen that list of merit badges at the top of this post considerable. I was taken by how many people, this tier and last, said that clearing Mythic HFC/BRF was the first time they finished a tier (and an expac) while the content was relevant. That's huge. That's a great feeling. This is new to plenty of folks here! It's speaks to the vibrancy of our core, regardless of their historic raid experience, that we worked together through these tough fights. That is what it is going to take, to keep our great guild thriving through whatever comes our way! So Congratulations Chibi, and congratulations ALL of Team Tyranny, old and new!!!!

So what now? We farm Mythic HFC. We farm Blackhand. We relax for a while and take stock of where we were, where we are, and where we want to go. Burning Crusade. Wrath of the Lich King. Cataclysm. Mists of Pandaria. Warlords of Draenor. Tyranny has completed every single expac, without pause, since 2007, Top 100. That's our history. Come join us as we move together into Legion and into even GREATER success!

Congratulations Tyranny on 13/13H, US#82. Thus ends Warlords of Draenor... Tyranny's 5th World of Warcraft expansion. And the hardest one to date.

Final Ranks
The Burning Crusade - US 85th
Wrath of the Lich King - US 80th
Cataclysm - US 37th
Mists of Pandaria - US 19th
Warlords of Draenor - US 82nd

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