Stix Bunkerjunker Stops Liquid and Echo - World of Warcraft Race to World First Recap
- Both Team Liquid and Echo have struggled so far to take down Liberation of Undermine's fourth boss: Stix Bunkerjunker
- Could this delay cause this race to extend weeks beyond what was anticipated?
World of Warcraft's Race to World First took a very surprising turn yesterday when an unsuspecting road block emerged that may prolong this race longer than anyone originally anticipated. Heading into the day, both Liquid and Echo had completed 3 of the 8 bosses in Liberation of Undermine with incredible momentum heading into the middle portion of the tier. That momentum was quickly squandered when they encountered Stix Bunkjunker.
Soon™ pic.twitter.com/rsVcNBGXg2
— Liquid Guild (@LiquidGuild) March 9, 2025
Current Progress
Both Liquid and Echo have pulled Stix over 60 times with Liquid logging an incredible 69 pulls yesterday without a kill. Liquid are currently sitting at #1 in the world with a 11.6% best pull while Echo is right behind them logging a 17.1% best pull.
Initially, Liquid was attempting to kill Stix with 3 tanks and 4 healers which is much different than the traditional party composition for a cutting-edge raid team. After realizing they weren't dealing enough damage, they eventually switched to two tanks after experimenting with many different spec combinations. After an entire day of trial and error and an entire night to plan strategies, it is almost certain both Liquid and Echo will kill Stix at some point today. If this boss isn't cleared today, we may be in for a much longer race than initially anticipated.
A Troubling Mechanic
One of the many mechanics that makes this fight incredibly tough is the interaction between the Rolling Rubbish Balls and the Territorial Bombshells that spawn around the room guarding their garbage piles. In the beginning of the fight, 4 players are chosen to receive Rolling Rubbish Balls that allow them to roll over small enemies and garbage piles, absorbing them while increasing the size of the ball, allowing it to absorb even larger objects. When these balls come into contact with Stix, they will explode dealing damage relative to the size of the ball as well as ejecting all enemies that were absorbed by the ball.
If the Territorial Bombshells are contacted by a Rolling Rubbish ball, they will wipe the raid, which is something that occurred frequently yesterday. Players have been experimenting with different boss/bombshell placement in order to prevent these contacts from occurring when running the Rubbish balls into Stix. They have even experimented with different spec combinations with abilities that simplify this process.
Is Stix Just the Start?
The 5th boss in this tier, Sprocketmonger Lockenstock may even be harder than Stix according to some players looking ahead at the mechanics as well as using their Heroic runs for reference. If this is the case, this race may be extended to lengths we haven't seen since Sepulcher of the First Ones back in Shadowlands. One great point made on the nightly Dratnos RWF Recap was that if Sprocketmonger was easier than Stix, both guilds would have already pulled and killed Sprocketmonger before even attempting Stix.
Where to Watch These Top Teams
Both Liquid and Echo are streaming the RWF on their respective Twitch Channels as well as YouTube. Stay tuned today as these top teams look to take down Stix and move on to Sprocketmonger before the weekly reset.
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Taven is a recent graduate from the University of Oregon's Sports Business program. During his time post-grad, he has developed his own website where he has covered the Call of Duty League as well as college football. He competed semi-professionally in the CDL Challengers Circuit for three years as well as for The University of Oregon's CCL team, which made playoffs and placed T48 each of Taven's three years. Taven still enjoys playing Call of Duty in his spare time, as well as World of Warcraft and any game he is obsessing over at the time.