Athene Does It Again [World First 85]

[MiRai]

World First Level 85 in, what I'm being told, 6 hours and 10 minutes with apparently mob tagging. I'll update this OP if the
information changes.

http://img340.imageshack.us/f/wowscrnshot120710071445.jpg/

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/9164/athen.jpg

Update:
As of 12:30AM CST / 7:30AM Paris time [right?], Athene hasn't received the "Realm First!" achievement. --Armory Link (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/neptulon/forscience/achievement#summary) --
Apparently he transferred to that realm less than 60 days ago.

Will I receive realm first achievements if I transfer to a realm where the achievements have not been completed?

Not immediately. Players are ineligible for realm first achievements if they have transferred and been on the realm for less than 60 days.
If these achievements remain incomplete for this 60 day period, the newly transferred characters will become eligible.

IcD5rQJONV4

[Shodokan]

Good shit athene.

[crowdx]

So a full group killing the mobs when he tags them? Was that not how the guy in WotLK was banned last time, running a raid for mob tagging? or some such?

[MiRai]

So a full group killing the mobs when he tags them? Was that not how the guy in WotLK was banned last time, running a raid for mob tagging? or some such?
Yes, but it was in an instance. The tank was dropping group and tagging while the other 4 helped kill the groups so that
the tank would get all the XP as if he was soloing the instance... Blizzard didn't like that.

EDIT: People are saying because he transferred to that realm less than 60 days ago he won't receive a Realm First
achievement. Armory link in OP.

[MiRai]

Another player, Smasher, is apparently questing as fast as he can:

http://smasher-live.de/ [Might be down when the sun rises in the US]

He currently has about 75% left until 85, he's only a few hours behind Athene, so 80-85 should really be a breeze. And
this guy will probably get the legit achievement.

[Kicksome]

So doesn't this sort of mean that instance grinding is a great way to level?

If he did it in 6 hour, that means if he had a full group it would be 30 hours to do the same thing?

[Feehza]

I dont like this guy, snotty french guy "best paladin in the world, ... with 0 PvP-skill". Its much more enjoyable to follow smashers progress through questing instead of gaining exp through exploiting.

[Sam DeathWalker]

He cheated last time when he was instance griding (well it wasn't clear it was cheating untill the GM's said it was).

If he did tag boosting this time well thats what I do every day.

Probably a bit less then 30 hours for 5 as you get group bonus.

Does Europe servers come up before ours, then we don't have a chanch to get relms first, its 4 am or so here, I could only have 4 hours in by now.

No one will care about the relm stuffs, if he posts he was first and can prove it well ......

[Sophie Hart]

There are always black sheeps in the herd. I think we should not be get bothered by their presence and keep it fair till the end.

[Gomotron]

I visited Athene's website. A least the site that comes up when you Google him.

I was hoping to see some vids and blogs on his path to 85. Instead I was treated to some hardcore e-peen that made me LOL. No 85 vids but it was worth a visit anyways.

[heyaz]

I dont like this guy, snotty french guy.

He's Belgian

[Siaea]

Funny thing (as I saw mentioned on mmo-c) is with his gear level, he can't even queue for H-HoR. I personally think the Smasher-style of leveling is more worthy of a first.

[MiRai]

I dont like this guy, snotty french guy "best paladin in the world, ... with 0 PvP-skill". Its much more enjoyable to follow smashers progress through questing instead of gaining exp through exploiting.
Hint: That's trolling. You got trolled. :) Pretty sure he's from Belgium, not France, but I could be mistaken. Smasher was
great and all but he ended up coming in tied for 35th place it looks like (http://www.wowprogress.com/char_level/). Smasher seemed to really slow down near the
end or 84 - 85 really is that long.


I visited Athene's website. A least the site that comes up when you Google him.

I was hoping to see some vids and blogs on his path to 85. Instead I was treated to some hardcore e-peen that made me LOL. No 85 vids but it was worth a visit anyways.
That video is probably going to take a little while to edit, I'm sure he's still basking in the world first achievement. The first
screen shot shows his DND reply that there will be a video, and if you know Athene, there will be a video.

[d0z3rr]

Athene is awesome. Can't wait for the video.

[MiRai]

Video added to OP.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Too long, didn't watch. :p

[Krotar]

He's Belgian

Definitely from Belgium as he had his own tv show here on GunkTV (a channel where they only show game related things).

To bad they stopped making new episodes :(.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well I think this puts to rest that tag boosting is one of the best ways to level, you will see how I was laughed at mostly when I suggested (and found the term "tag boosting") that this method (tag with the exp group and kill with others outside of the group) is viable for exp.


http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=19496&page=2


One thing not clear to me I guess he didn't exp on mobs that were level 85's as the lower guys helping him (must still be 80's) can't really land spells on the 85's. Basically he just found a spot with a ton of level 80 mobs (maybe 81) fast spawning and stayed there, like I will be staying at the tables in IC for a long time. (They nerfed the guys at Death's gate, there were so many mobs there even I wasn't able to kill them fast enough and a lot are casters also so its not all that good of a spot, I see why they nerfed them though some guys were making mobs explode (DK?) and killing a ton of other mobs with the exploding mob lol).

Ya if I was giving ALL the exp to ONE guy I would fly also, I have to split mine 31 ways though ......

As he states in the video he would have done nothing solo without the guild helping him kill. He would still be killing mobs if it wasn't for them helping a ton.

Hey in 10 or so years Athene just might have an ego as big as mine.



Is that how it works that only euro players can make world firsts (with their what 8 hour head start over California)? Thats kinda sux for us in America.

[Siaea]

like I will be staying at the tables in IC for a long time. (They nerfed the guys at Death's gate, there were so many mobs there even I wasn't able to kill them fast enough and a lot are casters also so its not all that good of a spot


Except Blizzard nerfed the experience down to 10% if you stay in Northrend above 80...(or Outland above 70, etc, etc).

[Fef]

I dont like this guy, snotty french guy "best paladin in the world, ... with 0 PvP-skill". Its much more enjoyable to follow smashers progress through questing instead of gaining exp through exploiting.

What do you guys have against French today ? Second time in less than 24 hours I read something like that here. OK, first time was more rude, even.

Besides, as was already mentioned, the dude is not even French !

Fef (born, raised and currently living in Paris)

[Siaea]

I've been to Paris. Quite nice, actually.

[zenga]

What do you guys have against French today ? Second time in less than 24 hours I read something like that here. OK, first time was more rude, even.

Besides, as was already mentioned, the dude is not even French !

Fef (born, raised and currently living in Paris)

First off, you address 1 poster as 'you guys', which can be seen as 'all posters' on this board.
Second off, said poster called him a snotty french guy. He targets 1 guy, not the whole of France.
Third off, the fact that the poster is wrong about the nationality and (as far as i can see) can't see through the whole athene irony / gimmick should be enough reason to just smile with his post and not take it too serious.

[Kedash00]

i've seen 4 pop 85 in the past hour, all the same high end guild, all horde! woot! DK, Lock, Shammy and think the last was a pally.

I on the other hand am at work so i took a break, logged out, came back and logged back in and i'm in a damn que with 45 minutes to go! WTF!
What am i supposed to do now? work? NEVA!

[Ughmahedhurtz]

What do you guys have against French today ? Second time in less than 24 hours I read something like that here. OK, first time was more rude, even.

Besides, as was already mentioned, the dude is not even French !

Fef (born, raised and currently living in Paris)

Don't worry. When the French Jihad begins, you can just send suicide bombers over to teach the rest of us a lesson in humility.

[stingc]

Athene is Greek

[Fef]

Third off, the fact that the poster is wrong about the nationality and (as far as i can see) can't see through the whole athene irony / gimmick should be enough reason to just smile with his post and not take it too serious.

I wasn't really. I should probably have thrown a few smileys into that ! ;)

[jinkobi]

He's kind of like a good villain. People love to hate him and like most others think he's a twat. He's about as legitimate as Michael Jackson's children. Loopholes are loopholes.

Funny his whisper in that screenshot, lol. My 'scientific findings'... What a joke.

[Sephice]

Can it be that my death knight team is the first MBing team with lvl 85?

Edit: Sry for the bad Screenshot but i need a bed ;)

http://www.dual-boxing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=273&stc=1&d=1291792671

[Iceorbz]

Congrats Sephice.

[crowdx]

Congrats,
Did you quest or grind dungeons?

[Sam DeathWalker]

Nice Sephice one day to 5 level 85's!

French are the best cooks in the world by far.

Ill stay at the tables untill I have 31 level 80's (or price on Cata comes down to like $20 each), so it will be awhile ......

[zenga]

...

French are the best cooks in the world by far......

I misread that for a split second.

[Sephice]

Thanks :)

Just Qesting, but i made a lot of Errors, and at last with 98% i had many Problems and Mount Hyjal was a bad idea to start leveling -_-

[Littleburst]

Athene is a great example of an attention whore. We got a fine specimen on my old server aswell

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1088189905

"Just thought you should all know that I got the Realm 1st Inscription at about 06:30 server time on the day of the launch."

[Mercbeast]

Athene is a great example of an attention whore. We got a fine specimen on my old server aswell

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1088189905

"Just thought you should all know that I got the Realm 1st Inscription at about 06:30 server time on the day of the launch."

Maybe, but everything he does is tongue firmly in cheek. He is just trying to financially capitalize on his e-fame, nothing wrong with that. I was actually in P4l for awhile, of Leeroy Jenkins fame, and as far as I know Leeroy despite some free trips about 4 years ago hasn't really cashed in on his fame.

I come from the "old school hardcore PvP" community and Athene is the norm. The only thing really serious is how serious people can seriously portray silliness. Most people simply don't get "it" and as such take everything said or done literally. This ultimately results in many laughs for those in the know.

By old school hardcore pvp community, I mean guilds formed before or around Ultima Online, prefer FFA/Sandbox PvP environments, and have long standing heated rivalries with each other. Who will post book length manifesto's of silliness detailing victories, glossing over or ignoring defeats, all in the most serious of tones when it is anything but serious. Athene is doing exactly the same thing, only on a grander scale, he has taken it mainstream.

[cmeche]

Athene's first video is what made me try out wow for for the first time. Im a little sad that his videos eventually started to get boring, but the first couple he did were pure gold.

[Ellay]

I seem to be out of the loop, I remember reading 80-85 was suppose to takes weeks even when trying to do it super fast.
Grats to Sephice though that is super awesome!

[Krotar]

I seem to be out of the loop, I remember reading 80-85 was suppose to takes weeks even when trying to do it super fast.
Grats to Sephice though that is super awesome!

I thought the same. I thought they were going to make it extremely long to get to 85. Seems like they didn't even tryed to make it long

[Mickthathick]

I love Athene, he has mastered the art of trolling and I love his postering and bravado. I'm dieing to know what this Scientific Project is that he keeps crapping on about, and how much the world will be changed when he unleashes it.

[Iceorbz]

I seem to be out of the loop, I remember reading 80-85 was suppose to takes weeks even when trying to do it super fast.
Grats to Sephice though that is super awesome!


Please remember they are changing wow that so you only have to play a few times a week.

Marathoning for 20-30 hours would be a week to weeks of play for most.

[robtest]

Athene and his buddies are politically motivated and WoW was just an outlet to popularize thier message. Search for their stuff on "net neutrality". The woman that plays his GF in the videos ran for the Belgium Parlament for the Nef Party with a naked billboard promising 40,000 jobs.

They are a curious bunch to be sure...

[Mercbeast]

Athene and his buddies are politically motivated and WoW was just an outlet to popularize thier message. Search for their stuff on "net neutrality". The woman that plays his GF in the videos ran for the Belgium Parlament for the Nef Party with a naked billboard promising 40,000 jobs.

They are a curious bunch to be sure...

Are they actually politically motivated, or are they just trolling in the mainstream? I think it is the latter rather than the former, but I think net neutrality if it is what I think I remember it is, is pretty important. Regulation of the internet is absurd, it is public domain, not the property of Uncle Sam. I could be completely wrong in what I remember it being btw ;p

[Mosg2]

I think it's funny that Blizzard nerfed the XP on the Naga that he grinded on but didn't give him even a temp ban or anything. Way-to-go favortism.

[Mercbeast]

I think it's funny that Blizzard nerfed the XP on the Naga that he grinded on but didn't give him even a temp ban or anything. Way-to-go favortism.

He didn't exploit at all. Tap leveling is and has always been the most efficient and fastest way to level if you can arrange a group of people to help you do it. I remember doing it in Tyrs hand way back in the day with a raid group to help people burn through a few levels.

The nerfing of the spot is an over reaction. For every person who can arrange this sort of expenditure of man hours to the benefit of one person, you have hundreds of thousands of subscribers who cannot.

[Tonuss]

Maybe, but everything he does is tongue firmly in cheek. He is just trying to financially capitalize on his e-fame, nothing wrong with that.
That's how I see it. He's less an attention whore and more of a publicity whore. He isn't some clueless guy who is trying so hard to be liked that he doesn't realized that everyone hates him. He has created a persona that he markets for publicity.

I don't follow the guy's videos (I've seen a few) and I'm not bowled over by the accomplishment (aside from wondering what the other players get out of it). But I don't hate on the guy over it. If he can make a living off of it, that's pretty awesome.

[Mosg2]

@Mercbeast:
The fact that they nerfed the XP there means that leveling to 85 in 6 hours via tap leveling was not intended... Which should be worth *at least* a reset to 80. The same that they did with him from 80 to 70. Either that, or restore the XP to the mobs.

/shrug

[Mercbeast]

@Mercbeast:
The fact that they nerfed the XP there means that leveling to 85 in 6 hours via tap leveling was not intended... Which should be worth *at least* a reset to 80. The same that they did with him from 80 to 70. Either that, or restore the XP to the mobs.

/shrug

This is a systemic problem with MMO developers. What they intend, and what actually happens in their games are almost completely divergent. The more developers clamp down on this, and try to enforce their own version of SonyEQ's "The Vision" the less freedom we the player base have. This is a negative trend in MMO's. More freedom = good, less freedom, more train track = bad.

In Ultima Online they never intended for people to commit what equated to mass genocide on other players at moon gates, I'll tell you the moon gate massacres me and my guild carried out were laggy as hell, and just as fun. Result was insta-wack guards in cities and moon gates.

In Everquest they never intended people to hit level 30 in a week, people did and Sony was left scrambling to actually finish the game. Result was they had to actually add the NPCs that sold level 30+ spells before they were ready to.

You can say this about virtually any MMO, people play harder, smarter and ultimately achieve more, faster than the developers plan for. They can either accept someone out smarted them and leave it alone, or they can remove the mechanic. In this instance they haven't removed the mechanic, rather the location was altered. This doesn't mean tap leveling is gone, any area where a player can do minor damage to lots of monsters quickly, elites are even better provides this opportunity.

[Mercbeast]

That's how I see it. He's less an attention whore and more of a publicity whore. He isn't some clueless guy who is trying so hard to be liked that he doesn't realized that everyone hates him. He has created a persona that he markets for publicity.

I don't follow the guy's videos (I've seen a few) and I'm not bowled over by the accomplishment (aside from wondering what the other players get out of it). But I don't hate on the guy over it. If he can make a living off of it, that's pretty awesome.

If there is one video you should watch, it is this one. (Language warning!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5tM_U5VVw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5tM_U5VVw&feature=player_embedded)

If people cannot see the satire here, they need to get a sense of humor ;p

[jstanthr]

this is the exact same way he done it to 80 and got it removed and even banned for a bit, why is it ok now?

[MiRai]

this is the exact same way he done it to 80 and got it removed and even banned for a bit, why is it ok now?
Because it isn't the same method. From 70-80 they were in an instance and the tank [not Athene] was dropping group,
tagging the mobs, the party was killing everything as a whole, and then they re-invited the tank back before the timer kicked
him out of the instance. This was 'exploiting' the use of the timer and the whole system about leaving a group in an instance.

To Everyone:
The way Athene tagged mobs in the outside world is 150% LEGAL and has been since the day World of Warcraft was retail,
you can all go cry to a Blue or a GM if you think otherwise. This wasn't cheating, the fact that they supposedly nerfed the XP
from the nagas just shows that Blizzard doesn't want people following the footsteps of Athene... big deal. If some random
person came forward and said he mob tagged a different mob in a different zone and went from 80-85 in less time than
Athene did, I'm sure Blizzard would then nerf that group of mobs as well.

[robtest]

The Character in the Video called "furious" (shirtless guy) is a hoot. The video of him getting lost and Athene searching all over town for him was great. And in total opposition to it is the real man behind character talking sincerely about net neutraility in a calm and level voice (with a shirt on none the less! LOL)


Have no doubt that this group knows exactly what they are doing and take marketing to a whole new level...

http://pics.myspew.com/d/6352-1/ik+beloof+u+400_00+jobs+-+tania+derveaux+naked+campaign.jpg

[Tonuss]

@Mercbeast:
The fact that they nerfed the XP there means that leveling to 85 in 6 hours via tap leveling was not intended... Which should be worth *at least* a reset to 80. The same that they did with him from 80 to 70. Either that, or restore the XP to the mobs.

/shrug
I think that Blizzard's stance on that issue is that they usually will not penalize a player for using or abusing a mechanic that they do not consider an exploit but more of an oversight. Dropping group in a dungeon to allow a player to receive full experience that he would otherwise be unable to get on his own is something they see as an exploit. Running around tagging outdoor mobs for others to kill for your benefit is something they would probably call "clever use of mechanics." Note that they did not remove the capability to do this, nor have they threatened to remove players who do it. They simply lowered the xp to make it less likely that anyone else does it.

[Mercbeast]

I think that Blizzard's stance on that issue is that they usually will not penalize a player for using or abusing a mechanic that they do not consider an exploit but more of an oversight. Dropping group in a dungeon to allow a player to receive full experience that he would otherwise be unable to get on his own is something they see as an exploit. Running around tagging outdoor mobs for others to kill for your benefit is something they would probably call "clever use of mechanics." Note that they did not remove the capability to do this, nor have they threatened to remove players who do it. They simply lowered the xp to make it less likely that anyone else does it.

I was under the impression they locally nerfed it by addressing the specific spawn he used. That is what made it so good I imagine. Usually tap leveling is capped by mob spawn, the spot he was at was instant spawning so literally there was no cap on how fast he could level in that regard.

Way back at release, I figure maybe march my guild began to extensively tap level outside Razorfen Downs, it was outrageously fast. We'd go agro everything by body pulling with level 60's and then let a group of level 10's or so get tap on all the mobs via hunter pets (that was the trick, since pets back then could hit ANYTHING and actually counted for tapping a mob) then a couple mages would AoE everything down. We popularized the method on our server, and eventually as the method began to popularize game wide they nerfed hunter pets ;p In terms of speed I would guess it was 2 to 3 hours to go from 10 to 40 I think was when the mobs began to become too low.

So yea, the don't stop people from doing it, because there are legit applications of doing it where a high level friend helps his buddy. They seem to be more looking out for the min-max version where people find a method or a spot to do it where it is much much much faster than leveling normally.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Guess it pays to be in beta and find these spots before they go live and get nerfed ......

[Starbuck_Jones]

There is a phased event in Deepholm where you are attacking the twilight hammer guys for the Therazine rock jabba girl. I sat there for 30 min just plowing non stop mobs at 4k xp a kill and had 5 npc's helping with spawns of up to 6 guys to kill.

I could have easily stopped there and just 1 button heroed my way from 82 to 85 there in half a day im guessing.

[robtest]

There is a phased event in Deepholm where you are attacking the twilight hammer guys for the Therazine rock jabba girl. I sat there for 30 min just plowing non stop mobs at 4k xp a kill and had 5 npc's helping with spawns of up to 6 guys to kill.

I could have easily stopped there and just 1 button heroed my way from 82 to 85 there in half a day im guessing.


Do you remember the name of the quest? With a bunch of 80's, that doesn't sound like a bad plan for awhile on some of my later ones after I get bored with new content.

Perhaps it was "Take No Prisoners" ???

http://www.wowhead.com/quest=26251

[MiRai]

Do you remember the name of the quest? With a bunch of 80's, that doesn't sound like a bad plan for awhile on some of my later ones after I get bored with new content.

Perhaps it was "Take No Prisoners" ???

http://www.wowhead.com/quest=26251
He's probably referring to this quest (http://www.wowhead.com/quest=26829). People are claiming to be clocking in 1.6mil non-rested XP/hour by gathering and killing
with the help of the NPCs that AOE. And people think instance boosting is rough. :)

[Shodokan]

There is a phased event in Deepholm where you are attacking the twilight hammer guys for the Therazine rock jabba girl. I sat there for 30 min just plowing non stop mobs at 4k xp a kill and had 5 npc's helping with spawns of up to 6 guys to kill.

I could have easily stopped there and just 1 button heroed my way from 82 to 85 there in half a day im guessing.

I did that for like 10% when i noticed the EXP they gave and then went "i need to get the rep/unlock the quatermasters anyway...time to go quest"