Something I've been wondering for some time is whether all these reports of PvE progression I read about on World of Raids are actual world firsts, or just firsts in the West. I know WoW-Korea and WoW-China have mighty strong player bases, so I'm curious if their PvE progression as a whole contends with some of the top EU guilds. Would the players of these top guilds push themselves that much harder if they knew there were more than a handful of guilds pushing the same content as they were?

I suppose the last question is somewhat unreasonable since I can't imagine how the guilds that got the world firsts could have possibly pushed themselves harder, but at least for me it's interesting to wonder how the other half (give or take) of Blizzard's playerbase is doing with this new content.

Actually I just had a thought: Is this content even out in Korea and China? I don't know how long localization takes... but I guess that's not the point of my post.

I tried looking around on google but couldn't find any kind of Chinese/Korean WoW guilds and I can't read either language. What does everyone think about the idea that Nihilium's recent world firsts may not have been so? Finally, does anyone know of a place that would have that kind of information?

PS: Sorry for the craptacular flow of this

Its my understanding that localised Asian content is behind Western releases.

Also, the restrictions in playtime that are imposed on chinese players by law that were a hot topic for discussion a while ago, would not those impact the potential for progression in a negative way?

TBC was just released in china around month ago

Also if memory serves me correct some of the furthest progressed asian guilds were posting their progress in Naxx on World of Raids back when boss's were dieing for the first time. I'd assume they would continue this trend if/ when they get The Burning Crusade.

PS I may be mistaken but a guild called Star got some high ranking kills in near the end when all were blocked at 4H enabling alot of guilds to catch up.

Korea's TBC release was about a month after the English-speaking countries. The best raiders there got Kaz'rogal and Shade of Akama down this week AFAIK. 5 guilds have gotten Kael down, three of those have advanced into Hyjal/BT.

As mentioned Asia lags behind EU and US because they receive the new content a month or so behind us in the west, they also seem to have a lower amount of high end guilds. So Nihilums WF kills are definitely world first.

Obviously we would know if some Asian guild would get a world first kill of a meaningful boss. It's not like they are that isolated from the western world (of warcraft :P). There would definately be someone with enough understanding of English to post some screenshot on a western page, and more isn't needed (if not from the guild itself, then someone else).

However, it's interesting to find out (if what Litesabre says couple posts above is true), that some Korean guild killed Kaz'rogal. It's a world 3rd kill after all, as far as I know.

There would definately be potential for more than that. Without resorting to stereotyping but simply how things are, Korea could very well have guilds with 25+ people that literally raid 12 hours every day (something that people falsely say of Nihilum). But obviously, being weeks or even months behind in the updating process puts them in a more difficult position.

That doesn't suddenly allow you to progress farther.

As long as you have the time to collect your consumables for raiding the only need for playing 12 hours a day is if your were constantly wiping. Any fight that is gear limited means you gotta wait until next week, farm some of the lower raid zones for more upgrades and try again.

Which would matter if progression was limited by gear, but right now it isn't.