The race to become the first guild to defeat L'ura, the final boss of the March on Quel'Danas raid in World of Warcraft, has been thrown into disarray by a secret phase. Team Liquid and Team Echo, two of the top guilds in the world, were neck-and-neck in their attempts to bring down the boss, with each guild just a few health percentage points away from victory. However, on April 4, Liquid appeared to have secured the win, bringing L'ura down to 0 HP, only to discover that the boss had a fourth, secret phase. In a dramatic twist, the boss healed to her full 1 billion health and began overwhelming the arena, quickly killing the last remaining raiders.
The secret phase has been a challenge for both teams, with each having only done it a handful of times. However, each time a team has reached the secret phase, they've been able to glean more information about it. The good news is that with more intel, it looks like the phase itself is relatively simple (though still extremely challenging). Players need to stick close together in a light bubble while avoiding L'ura's lasers and voidlings, as well as be able to heal through massive damage from a raid-wide attack. The even better news is that L'ura takes significant extra damage during this phase. If each team can get to the final phase with most of the raid alive, the boss should go down relatively quickly.
It's still no easy task. The L'ura fight overall looks to be brutally difficult, so much so that just getting to the final phase with most of the raid alive is the biggest challenge. As it currently stands, Echo has managed to get L'ura down to 11% HP post-resurrection on its best attempt, while Liquid brought the boss to 44% before taking a break for the night. As of writing both teams have attempted the encounter over 400 times. With both teams in the home stretch, it seems L'ura is poised to fall today, but not without a hell of a fight. You can watch the dramatic conclusion over on Twitch.
This isn't the first time L'ura has refused to be brought down. One clever group of players attempted to kill L'ura before the March on Quel'Danas raid even launched, only to find that Blizzard made the naaru unkillable. Perhaps that was a bit of foreshadowing on Blizzard's part, but it seems like just a matter of time before the heroes of Azeroth are once again victorious.
As for what else is new in Blizzard's MMORPG, WoW will be getting a great new transmog option, as well as an official Pride month event, as part of its next major update. If you're in the market for new in-game cosmetics, an unexpected collab with a popular cookware brand and a citrusy soda both offer new ways for players to customize their characters.
In my opinion, the secret phase of L'ura's fight is a fascinating twist that adds a layer of complexity to an already challenging encounter. It's a testament to the creativity and ingenuity of the WoW community that they can find new ways to push the boundaries of the game. I'm excited to see how this race to world first unfolds and how the guilds will adapt to this new challenge.
