Sylvanas Down! Echo secure World First in the WoW RWF Sanctum of Domination

Sylvanas Windrunner has been defeated, and the Mythic Sanctum of Domination conquered, as Echo becomes the first guild in the world to clear the most challenging version of World of Warcraft’s latest raid (WoW RWF). The kill came after seven days of raiding, with the European guild eventually emerging victorious.

In a tense end to the final boss, the difference between Echo, and their chief competition, Complexity Limit, was fractional. But ultimately, after 176 pulls, Echo was able to take the victory. Complexity Limit had called it a day on their raiding just hours before, unable to kill the boss. Their plan was to kill the boss on re-clears.

Controversy and confusion reigned as the race came to an end. Sylvanas Windrunner, the final boss of the Sanctum of Domination had died at 50% health on each of the lower difficulties of the raid. However, a data-mined rumour suggested that in Mythic, this number was tweaked to 45%. In heart-breaking fashion, Echo reduced the boss to 49.57% Health on the evening of July 18th, only to find the rumour was true.

However, undaunted, Echo began raiding fully refreshed the next day. Breaking out a surprising new strat on phase two to squeeze an extra 3% damage. This meant that the 45% was finally within reach. But, in yet another blow, seemingly directly targeted at Echo's RWF efforts, a WoW hot-fix by Blizzard removed this strategy.

After Echo had called their efforts for the day, Complexity Limit stepped up and pushed the boss hard, getting it as low as 49%, but were unable to get it lower. With Limit Breaking for the night, Echo were able to surge in the following morning and take victory.

The Race for World First (RWF), an unofficial competition that takes place whenever new WoW raids are released, is the most intensive challenge in MMOs. Each raid tier, hundreds of guilds around the world compete to become the first to clear WoW's newest raid in its most challenging form. And this time, Echo has been successful in claiming that title.

Echo’s victory is a massive boon to a relatively new organization. The guild was formed originally from a cadre of world-first raiders who were formerly part of Method. However, the team struggled to reach the heights of its former organization in the previous RWF Castle Nathria. But the guild quickly returned to form, claiming victories at the Great Push and at the Mythic Dungeon International. Headed into Sanctum of Domination, Echo was favored as the top guild in Europe, if not the world.

Starting a day later than their North American rivals Limit, the team surged through the early bosses, before securing the world-first Kel'Thuzad kill among other records in this latest raid. Their win is well deserved.

But for the rest of the guilds, the battle is far from over. For Complexity Limit, there’s still the First in NA title to claim. And for the rest of the RWF guilds, the latest WoW raid still needs clearing. They’ll be hoping to defeat Sylvanas within the next few days.