Ask WoW Insider: To wipe or not to wipe?
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 27th 2007 at 5:00PM
Our own Barb, who usually runs the Friday afternoon Ask WoW Insider column, is off speaking prestigiously at a very prestigious conference (go Barb!) today. So instead, I'm going to step in, and put your considerable brainpower, dear readers, to work deciphering what I think is a pretty philosophical conceit. Ken asks, very succintly:A quick one for you, the boss is down but everyone died... Is it a wipe?What do you think? You kill the boss, but everyone in your UI is dead. I'll even make it tougher-- everyone who had a soulstone or an ankh in the fight has used it, so the only way you're going to get that loot is if someone runs back. Wipe, or not a wipe? Is it possible to both wipe and down a boss, or does "wipe" expressly imply failure? And if not, what do you call both death and success?
If you've got a question, silly or serious, pensive or practical, that you'd like to ask the readers of WoW Insider, sent it to ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Instances, Ask WoW Insider, Bosses
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rich Jul 27th 2007 5:10PM
Technically, if everyone had to run back for loot, then it's a wipe. Sure something positive happened, but it is still a wipe.
IMO, it really doesn't matter unless your trying to claim a World/Server first. Then its not a legit kill unless at least one person was left standing at the end.
tigerhar Jul 27th 2007 5:12PM
I generally try not to paint with such a broad brush but when it comes to defining a wipe yes, I consider the entire team dying and having to run back to their corpse a wipe. Whether or not the end boss is dead.
Kingfox Jul 27th 2007 5:12PM
I've heard it called a "Double KO", as it was in fighting games back in the day. It's something my guild used to have a habit of doing, we'd often take out a boss but die to adds the first time we'd down them.
Acariquara Jul 27th 2007 5:22PM
1. Kill boss and Wipe at the same time
2. Druid releases and stealthes back to boss in case of respawns
3. Druid rez rezzers
4. Loot, Screenshot
5. Claim it was not a wipe
psdavies Jul 27th 2007 5:18PM
If you've got wipe prevention: soulstone or reincarnate (assuming you didn't DI because everyone died), and the ability to loot-- I'd say you win at the internet.
darkicon Jul 27th 2007 6:13PM
@5 - Exactly! If no one saw it, it never happened.
Steve Hall Jul 27th 2007 6:20PM
#5 wins the thread.
Wipe? Technically, yes. But what's the objective, really? For me, it's to kill the Boss and get the Loot. If you accomplish that objective, then it really doesn't matter who died.
Krishan Jul 27th 2007 6:54PM
unless you fraps it for a server/world first :D
Seriously though, it is a wipe cuz everyone died and there was no one who could self-res...but you still get the loot.
Sylythn Jul 27th 2007 8:50PM
I'd say it's a wipe. I managed this in an Auchenai Crypts run the other night. We killed the original target so fast, we didn't even bother to hit the shade he created. Problem is, we all died - so we had to run back in, and kill the shade in order to get to the body and the loot.
Thunderbain Jul 27th 2007 8:43PM
The problem with wiping is that 1 bad person can ruin the entire party and therefore cause the wipe
Stivilegenti Jul 30th 2007 8:41AM
I was there, and I'll tell you how it happened...
8% remaining... our tank's WoW crashes, but he still appears online to us, just not attacking
We are able to get Prince to 1%, then our tank disappears, due to the 30 secs timeout... Prince starts one-shotting cloths all over the place
Before the last spell against him could land, our last member downed...
fortunately for us, our shammy was able to reincarnate, thus... no wipe ! :)
CauthonDM Jul 28th 2007 12:49AM
Yes, it is a wipe. Everyone died and thus it's a wipe. However I think the more important question is would you prefer a 0% wipe or a 1% wipe? I don't think it's that important that everyone died, the key thing is the boss did as well.
I also can't ever recall this happening at a raid boss for me. We did once kil Huhuran in AQ40 with only a hunter with around 400 health still standing. That was a fun one.
Pook Jul 28th 2007 5:39AM
Yes it was a wipe, but it was still a successful kill...So i don't see how it would matter.
Quiz Jul 28th 2007 8:20AM
it's a wipe.
Muse Jul 29th 2007 4:16AM
I agree that it's a wipe -- everyone died. However the word "wipe" often does also imply failure, so when describing what happened, I would say, "we wiped, but managed to kill the boss first." Mostly a "wipe" to me just means everyone died.
Ghen Jul 28th 2007 9:32PM
wipe means you have to do it again, its not a wipe if you get past it.
Jashin Jul 29th 2007 3:55PM
Wipe means you failed to kill something and have to do it over.
A win is a win in my book. Some are just cleaner then others. Like Vael fights. As long as the sum bitch goes down. I don't care who is left standing.
Matt Jul 29th 2007 1:05PM
heh... Wipe? yes. Does it matter? ...maybe
The first time my guild downed Rag back in the MC days, the last player standing was a priest. He killed Rag with a final wand shot, which was in flight just as rag nailed him. He died from fall damage. We all released as quickly as we could to run back, but that was a hell of a hike, and by the time the ML got back, Rag's hammer had despawned. No lewts for us =(
scott veirs Jul 29th 2007 1:07PM
Wipe = everyone dies.
Did you accomplish your goal? Yes, but you still wiped :)
Thats all it comes down to, how many of your party are standing? 0 = wipe.
1DI does not = wipe. However a SS does because the healer died as well. The SS only brings the party back up faster.