Server:Shattered Hand US
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| This article is an information page for the Shattered Hand US realm (server) The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official World of Warcraft history or occurrences which are accurate for all realms. The information and events listed are of an independent nature and applied for roleplaying, fictional, speculative, or opinions from a limited playerbase only. |
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Shattered Hand (PvP, US)
Shattered Hand is a Player versus Player server for Blizzard's MMORPG, World of Warcraft. The Shattered Hand server was one of the original servers included with the release of World of Warcraft and was originally one of the highest population servers in the US. The server was listed as an East coast server before Blizzard removed the timezone listings. Shattered Hand is both rich in culture and history, and filled with accomplishments for both factions. Tensions still run high, old jokes still are made, and forum trolls still come and go but Shattered Hand has and always will remain a server with an incredible community lush in culture and enjoyment.
These events do not necessarily appear in chronological order.
The Race to Molten Core
Not much is known about the early days of Shattered Hand but Shattered Hand started out as any other server, guilds of common friends were formed and merged. These guilds soon raced to be the first to complete the Molten Core. Competition was at its peak and guild rivals were only beginning to heat up as each guild promised newly recruited fresh level 60s fame and glory. It was not long before three superpowers emerged from the Alliance faction; Death and Taxes, Drama, and Skyfang. Few horde guilds could compare to the might of the Alliance however, pioneering for the Horde were the guilds Relentless, Transcend, and Revered. These guilds were among the first to achieve permanent Hall of Fame status as they tackled encounter after encounter and were the first people privileged with the epic rewards from the Molten Core. It was during the days of Molten Core that a Skyfang mage, Sayuri, would achieve the world's first complete Arcanist Set.
The First Bloodscalp Exodus & the Stronghorn Incident
With the introduction of the new outdoor raid bosses, Azuregos and Lord Kazzak, the horde quickly felt the pressure of the Alliance as they were continually stomped day after day by the power of the Alliance. The Alliance guilds ran free and caused chaos to already disgruntled Horde players. Shattered Hand became one of the first servers to open character transfers to the much smaller server, Bloodscalp (which ironically is now larger than Shattered Hand). Largely frustrated by the population imbalance, many Horde fled to Bloodscalp, in hopes of avoiding being ganked (killed) by higher level or multiple alliance players. During one of (if not) the first Azuregos kills for the Horde, a quiet druid named Stronghorn ninja’ed (stole) all the loot dropped by Azuregos. Truthfully, at that time, Stronghorn was not aware of game mechanics and more importantly, the loot system. Though he did technically ninja loot those items, his actions were unintentional. At this point, an action of this proportion was unheard of, thus forever coining the term Stronghorned: to have items off a mob stolen by an individual from a party or a raid. Stronghorn was then recruited and glorified by the Horde guild Order of the Dead (OTD). OTD was already hated for being rumored to have an alliance with Skyfang, the most hated guild by both factions, and one of the most powerful Alliance guilds on the server. OTD soon felt the pressure of such actions from other Horde and fled to Bloodscalp during the First Exodus. With them, went some of the most notorious characters and ninjas on Shattered Hand. Among them was Trollwizard, an accused ninja and early forum troll. Although there is no proof (from the lack of screenshots) that Trollwizard even ever existed. Not all players left on bad terms, such as the Horde guild Desk Chair Lamp among other players.
All Hell Breaks Loose
April 19th introduced the Player versus Player Honor system, ending the uneasy truce in contested territories. Night after night, Horde capital cities became stomping grounds for Alliance players. The Horde capital city bosses were considered as "farming status" for Alliance guilds. The Plaguelands, Felwood, Everlook, and Tanaris became hotspots for the fighting. Also, located in the zone of Hillsbrad Foothills, the Forsaken city of Tarren Mill became the biggest 24/7 war zone of endless combat. Most of the time, the Horde fought courageously right at their borders, backed up with an army of Forsaken guards. However, at times, the power (and numbers) of the Alliance was too much, forcing a total defeat of the war-torn city. This was due to the large unbalance that occurred on many PvP servers, favoring Alliance by nearly 2 to 1. Inspired by Nydectyre's ramblings emerged the self proclaimed "Warchief of the Horde" Dave, a level 60 Orc Warrior (although many felt Xilrasis humbly deserved this title). Dave attempted to rally supporters in the defense of major Horde cities to fight back the Alliance. However, Dave was also greatly criticized on the forums for his persona and because of his involvement with OTD. Dave reluctantly left with the Second Bloodscalp Exodus but he will always remain one of the most memorable characters in Shattered Hand history.
The Introduction of the Battlegrounds
The pleas of the Horde were heard and on June 7th, the PvP Battlegrounds were introduced. At last, the Horde was able to fight the Alliance on equal playing fields. However, the might of the much superior geared Alliance still could not be overcome. In the epic 40 versus 40 man battleground, Alterac Valley, Horde found themselves fighting a losing battle night after night. This discouraged Horde from participating in PvP activities all together. It was soon realized that organized PvP was the only option which gave rise to true PvP guilds; Enmity for the Horde and Liberi Dorum for the Alliance. However, today, neither of these guilds remain in the state they were formed. These guilds gave rise to the highest ranked players, including the infamous rogue Pilois, the first High-Warlord, and the first legit Grand-Marshal, Kupcha. Other notables from Liberi Dorum included the Guild Master, Tristin a well known mage who since transfered servers and Purefury a warlock who later joined Drama.
The Exploitation of Cairne and The Split of Skyfang
On a daily basis, Jubei, the infamous leader of Skyfang, and his guild would invade the Horde city of Thunderbluff to kill the NPC boss Cairne Bloodhoof in order to gain honor, mostly uncontested. What made Jubei’s case so extraordinary was that he would solo tag Cairne and order his guild in a separate raid group to kill Cairne for him. This allowed Jubei to receive absolutely incredible amounts of honor for almost no work. Of course, this action was an extreme topic for debate on the Shattered Hand forums. During this time the use of “level one alts‿ to bash other players anonymously became extremely popular. Among them was Undeadmage, one of the biggest trolls to date. Jubei continually received much verbal abuse from both factions for his action. Eventually, Blizzard made it more difficult for Jubei to exploit Cairne for honor. These actions and many other factors soon led to the split of Skyfang. Some of the most skilled and best geared Skyfang members left the guild Skyfang, led by Moki, to form Indomitable. This left Skyfang extremely crippled leaving the spot of Shattered Hand superpower to either Death and Taxes or Drama, which only Blackwing Lair would reveal.
Blackwing Lair Era
Many, many more guilds progressed in Molten Core on Shattered Hand however, very few progressed in Blackwing Lair. Much like the early days of Shattered Hand, Drama and Death and Taxes raced to be the first to complete BWL. Their hours of commitment led Drama to be the first worldwide guild to clear Blackwing Lair by defeating the final boss Nefarian. Death and Taxes, one night later, also defeated Nefarian, becoming the 2nd US guild to clear Blackwing Lair, thus putting Shattered Hand on the map once again. Continuing the tradition for the Horde, Relentless became the first Horde guild to kill each boss in BWL. Other horde guilds that cleared BWL include Hellborn and The Myrmidons.
Shattering of Shattered Hand
Spring 2006 has been a real nightmare for the players of Shattered Hand. Many guilds have lost numerous veteran players and casual players and a few big guilds even disbanded. One of the reasons why so many players left (around 100, if not more, level 60 players) is the lag. Instances like Molten Core and Blackwing Lair were nearly incompletable because of the amount of lag players had to deal with. During peak hours, players would have to wait five to ten minutes simply to load their character page, then they'd have to deal with a red latency bar until 11pm or so. Many posts were made on the general and technical support forums on www.worldofwarcraft.com, but seemed to be ignored by the blues.
- A video demonstrating this lag was made by one of the server's more notable members to aid in the cry for help:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7133737228682726797&q=lag+shattered+hand&hl=en or http://files.filefront.com/Lagfestwmv/;5071980;/fileinfo.html
afterwards, more of these videos followed: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=468203855083151326&q=lag+shattered+hand&hl=en http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1921861458488418709&hl=en http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6062480911619231169&hl=en http://video.google.com/url?docid=-6062480911619231169&esrc=sr2&ev=v&q=lag+shattered+hand&vidurl=http://video.google.com/videoplay%3Fdocid%3D-6062480911619231169%26q%3Dlag%2Bshattered%2Bhand%26hl%3Den&usg=AL29H20h-6DyfpV8g0PVzriSp_aG1A1N9g
The server latency came back to normal a few weeks later after character transfer to the realm Korgath was enabled. Most notable losses were the large Alliance guilds Death and Taxes and Drama and the Horde Guild Transcend.
Naxxramas Era
With the departure of both Death and Taxes and Drama, the title of #1 Guild was up for grabs. Two alliance guilds, Indomitable and WarEnsemble, would battle for server domination of the new 40 man instance Naxxramas. Throughout the majority of the Naxxramas era, Indomitable would claim many server first kills. Both guilds spent significant time progressing on Thaddius, with WarEnsemble beating Indomitable to the kill by one day. Indomitable would claim server first kills up until Sapphiron at which point War Ensemble would overtake them by killing Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad on the same weekend for the first and only Naxxramas clear that Shattered Hand has seen. only other guild to Kill Sapphiron was Servants of Justice very late in the running and worked on Kel'Thuzad up until the Burning crusade, unsuccessfully. On the horde side of the Shattered Hand, Relentless was the only guild that made significant progress into Naxxramas, clearing the instance up to the Four Horsemen.
The Burning Crusade
With the release of the The Burning Crusade, raid content was put on hold as players raced to level 70. Many of the former 40 man alliance guilds were remade to accommodate 25 man raids. Indomitable would reform as Royalty, War Ensemble would reform into Haze and Revelation, and The Hammer Clan would reform as Skill Overload. A <Relentless> shaman, Calypso would be the first level 70 on the server while <Haze> warrior, Enf, and <Skill Overload> rogue, Killars, tied for server first 70 as they turned in a quest at the exact same time to simultaneously hit 70. The race for the first 70 Blood Elf Paladin was a heated one, however, <The Myrmidons> Yamamoto (now in <Relentless>), succeeded in being the first Horde Paladin on Shattered Hand.
In the early stages of The Burning Crusade, Haze , Skill Overload and Relentless continued to dominate PVE progression on their respective sides. Haze killed Nightbane, having killed every boss in Karazhan at least once, with Skill Overload close behind clearing Karazhan in its completion first. Haze had the head start in 25 man raiding killing High King and Gruul first. Relentless, on the other side, has been the only guild to kill both of the new outdoor raid bosses (Kazzak/Doomwalker). The guild leader of Haze later joined Death and Taxes of Korgath and Haze split soon with many players going to Pare Bellum and Head in Hands.
Soon after the Gruul hot fix, having most guilds being able to kill him easily. The the new race was to Magtheridon, which Skill Overload would succeed in being first in, Skill Overload completely dominated Serpentshrine Cavern up till Lady Vashj, achieving the first kills of Hydross the Unstable, The Lurker Below, Morogrim Tidewalker, Fathom-Lord Karathress, and Leotheras the Blind kills. On the horde side, Relentless obtained server first kills of Lady Vashj and completely dominated Tempest Keep, clearing all bosses, including Kael'thas Sunstrider first.
Relentless thriving off their Tempest Keep success wasted no time in the next instances of Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. They would be the first to kill every boss in Black Temple and Hyjal and ultimately clear it in early September of 2007. As of 1/14/08, multiple guilds on Shattered Hand, both Horde and Alliance have cleared all available content. After a few major guild disbands, each side currently only have two guilds with Black Temple fully cleared. On horde side, Relentless and Hellborn, while on the alliance side, Skill Overload and Pare Bellum have killed Illidan. For the Alliance, Servants of Justice just have Illidan remaining however the closest guild behind them, progression wise, is Royalty, who have yet to clear Mount Hyjal. On the horde side, the race is much closer. With the recent departure of Warcraft Gaming Faction from the raiding scene, the horde are still waiting for the next guild to down Illidan. Newly formed Apophasis (formed by Lelaine) is cruising through content, currently working on the Essence of Souls fight in Black Temple. Immediately behind them is Seeds of Despair / Fossils of War who are one of the four horde guilds (Relentless, Hellborn, Apophasis, SoD/FoW) to have killed Archimonde, and are currently progressing in Black Temple. Following SoD/FoW is Uncontrolled, still awaiting an Archimonde kill.
It should be noted that despite Relentless having killed Illidan for months before Hellborn achieved this feat, the first Warglaive of Azzinoth to drop for the Horde fell for Hellborn, and went to Lunarrs (High Warlord - troll Rogue), who then got the 2nd Warglaive (main hand) merely another week or two later. Since then, Relentless completed their own rogue, in the hands of Raeph. Two extra main hand warlglaives have gone to Khrono (DPS Warrior) and Rodamer (Rogue), and Delt, once a member of Seeds of Despair, joined Relentless, bringing his pair of warglaives. Seeds of Despair tied the world record for the fastest set of Warglaives, getting Delt his set of warglaives in a mere 5 kills. A second offhand dropped off their 8th kill, which went to Skiazo, who still awaits a mainhand. The horde has been rather lucky with warglaives, obtaining a total of 14.
Raeph (Rogue - Relentless) - Both Delt (Rogue - Relentless) - Both (obtained with Seeds of Despair) Lunarrs (Rogue - Hellborn) - Both Pilico (Warrior - Relentless) - Both Khrono (Warrior - Relentless) - Main Hand Rodamer (Rogue - Relentless) - Main Hand Lelaine (Warrior - Apophasis) - Main Hand Skiazo (Rogue - Seeds of Despair) - Off Hand Bokoni (Rogue - Hellborn) - Off Hand Dieselboy (Rogue - Hellborn) - Off Hand
Sunwell is now open, Relentless is leading the way with the server server first downing of the Eredar Twins.
The Departure of Skyfang
In August 2007, Skyfang endured it's final split on Shattered Hand when a group of guild members led by the paladin Midorin parted ways amicably with Skyfang to form the guild Project Mayhem. This group included two Skyfang Guild Officers and several active players, as well as bringing some previously inactive and disenchanted Skyfang players from the Naxx and BWL era back into the game. Skyfang leadership subsequently decided to make a change and remaining guild members transferred to the server Anub'arak. Speculation is that their reputation for an unfair loot system and lack of diplomacy led to them being unable to recruit new members even on such a high population server as Shattered Hand, so they transferred to an obscure low population server hoping their reputation wouldn't follow them [1]. Regardless, Skyfang leaves a long history on Shattered Hand behind and many prominent guilds left on the server which began as Skyfang splinters.
Eins the Extraordinaire
Fuhrer of Shattered Hand
Warlord of the Interwebs
www.youtube.com/kingeins
Guilds, Websites, & their GM's
Alliance
[Asylum] - http://mentaldurahit.com (GM - Cilverce/Reides) *ASYLUM DOWN*
[Aussie Raiders] - http://www.aussieraiders.com (GM - Realmslayer)
[Clan Cuato] - http://www.clan-cuato.com (GM - Cuatolover)
[Darkness Hellfire] - http://www.darknesshellfire.com (GM - Laynie)
[Daylight Fading] - http://www.daylight-fading.com {GM - Warhowl)
[Defenders of Infinity] - http://infinity.wowstead.com (GM - Fuschia)
[Disciples of the Blade] - http://www.disciplesguild.com (GM - Biggun)
[Elusive] - http://www.dd-guild.org (GM - Magius)
[Evolution] - http://www.evolution-sh.com (GM - Stormknight)
[Fear and Loathing] - http://www.fearloath.com (GM - Ravistis) *FEAR AND LOATHING DOWN*
[Forged] - http://forged.shatteredhand.net (GM - ripvanwinkle)
[Forgotten Lords] - http://forgottenlords.guildportal.com (GM - Pugnacious) *FORGOTTEN LORDS DOWN*
[Havok] - http://www.havok-sh.com (GM - Trizzie/Smapp)*HAVOK DOWN*
[Hymn] - http://www.hymnguild.com/ (GM - Eloyn)
[Na Fianna] - http://nafianna.org (GM - Antaine)
[Omen] - http://omen.epicmount.com/ (GM - Jonaas)
[Order from Chaos] - http://www.ofcguild.com/ofc/ (GM - Trannie/Rammstein)
[Pare Bellum] - http://www.pare-bellum.com (GM - Warbar)
[Phoenix Order] - http://phoenixorder.tt.cx (GM - Gospel) *PHOENIX ORDER DOWN*
[Project Mayhem] - http://www.wowprojectmayhem.org (GM - Midorin)
[Pwnage Platoon] - http://www.pwnageplatoon.com (GM - Sulli)
[Ramen]- www.ramenguild.cjb.net (GM - Abbey)
[Rampant Fronting] - http://www.rampantfronting.com (GM - Mzo)
[Riders of the Apocalypse]- http://www.rotaguild.org (GM - Cuukey) *RIDERS OF THE APOCALYPSE DOWN*
[Royalty]- http://www.royaltyguild.com (GM - Moki)
[Rüne] - http://www.guildofrune.com (GM - Beltane)
[Servants of Justice] - http://www.servantsofjustice.com (GM - Cloak)
[Skill Overload] - http://www.skilloverload.com (GM - Halthor/Telcontarx)
[The Brotherhood] - http://www.thebhood.com (GM - Mercator)
[The Saxons] - http://www.saxons-guild.net (GM - Skizzle) *THE SAXONS DOWN* (Faktion ruined it)
[World Defense Channel] - http://www.wdcguild.com (GM - Aellerian/Federer)
Horde
[Apophasis]- http://www.lrn2play.net/apophasis/ (GM - Lelaine)
[B E E R (Battle Evil Elven Rule)] -http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=207895&TabID=1754486 (GM - Itsnoc)
[Da Ninja] - http://www.daninja.com (GM - Duckdodgers)
[Death and Decay] - http://dnd.guildportal.com (GM - Zinful)
[Defenestrated Necrosis] - http://www.dnecrosis.com (GM - Biggrimtim)
[Ego]- http://s6.invisionfree.com/ego_guild07 (GM - Gorre)
[Enmity]- http://enmity.mmoguildsites.net/home (GM - Stagger)
[Evade] - http://www.evade-guild.com (GM - Rhyu)
[Fossils of War]- http://www.fow-clan.org/ (GM- Bever)
[Hellborn]- http://www.hellbornguild.com (GM - Jedah)
[Heretics and Killers] - http://www.hereticsandkillerssh.guildomatic.com (GM - Artemorius)
[Hit List] - http://hitlist.gamehavoc.com (GM - Sapsloader)
[Iron Curtain] - http://www.TheIronCurtain.net
[Omnipotent] - http://omniguild.guildportal.com (GM - Hydrosdreem)
[Panther Moderns]- http://www.panther-moderns.com (GM - Kazallo/Lupus(It's never Lupus))
[Punch Drunk] - http://www.punchdrunk.guildomatic.com (GM - Gannjamonn)
[Relentless]- http://www.relentguild.com (GM - Dranlo)
[Renegade] - (GM: Whatsgood/Demondeacon)
[Sanctuary] - http://www.sanctuaryguildsh.net (GM - Wråth)
[Seeds of Despair]- http://www.seedsofdespair.com/ (GM - Cadberry)
[TaeGukGi] - http://www.taegukgiguild.com (GM - Shinigami)
[The Myrmidons]- http://www.myrmidonsguild.com/ (GM - Jhamin)
[Uncontrolled] - http://www.uncontrolledguild.com (GM - Masimo)
[Warcraft Gaming Faction]- http://www.clanwgf.com (GM - Slurp)
Notes
- ^ Ebathory "Realm Forums > Anub'arak" World of Warcraft Forums, September 9th, 2007