Server:Cenarius US

Famous Players on Cenarius
Mike Schramm plays on Cenarius, he is the Senior Editor of Wow Insider and runs the podcast for that site.

Cenarius (PvE)
Named after the son of Elune and Malorne, Cenarius is an original-launch PST server. It typically hovers around medium population. Horde are significantly outnumbered. No exact numbers exist, but most well-informed players on the server would estimate a 1:3 or 1:4 horde to alliance ratio.

PvP is tepid, at best. Pickup groups run on both sides, but there are also organized guild runs by both factions from Arathian Knights, Afterlife, Focus, Impulse, Poseidon, Wrought from Ruin, Bunch of Bads, et al. Predictably, pickup groups fare poorly against the more organized competition. Outdoor PvP is extremely rare, mostly due to the massive alliance/horde gap. While Wintergrasp is virtually an Alliance town, occasional organized Horde groups can sometimes hold it for a while. Cenarius is part of Battlegroup US Whirlwind, and therefore Horde usually wins Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, and Eye of the Storm, with Alterac Valley going either way. The Stranglethorn Arena is always being taken over by a hero only known as "Beast Mode", so it is mostly pointless to even try to claim the chest containing the Arena Master. Being a PvE server, many players are interested in the high-end raids, and as such finding groups for end game content is generally not much of an issue. Unfortunately, Cenarius is home to an excessively large number of Hunters, primarily Night Elf, and Rogues, as well as Death Knights, and as one of those classes finding normal-mode groups can sometimes be difficult and Heroic mode groups is extremely so.

The official Cenarius forums located on the Blizzard forums are somewhat slower paced than comparable servers, generally running 6 pages of retained posts. For the most part, the posts are unremarkable with the odd post that becomes a lightning rod for current server dramatics. The forum is fairly infested with players who post as level 1 characters commenting on other players, guilds and so on to avoid implicating themselves or their guild. In some cases, this has gone poorly when the player was revealed by others and in at least one case has resulted in that player claiming to have quit the game and deleted their characters along with all of his guilds possessions.

Patch 2.4 and Sunwell
With the release of patch 2.4 the competition began again to be among world firsts to unlock the Sunwell's content. Only a few days in Cenarius is quite deep into unlocking the third phase of the Sunwell Isle and is in the position to be the world first to unlock the new badge vendors. With the breadth of hardcore and casual players that make this server their home there is no surprise that this is being unlocked so quickly.

Guilds: A Short History
As was previously stated, Cenarius is a PvE realm. Accordingly, many players interested in PvE congregated on the server. The "Uber Guild" community on Cenarius is very lively. Afterlife, formerly a prominent Everquest guild, moved to Cenarius from EverQuest.

As early as February 2005 guilds were penetrating deep into the Molten Core, spawning Ragnaros. For the Alliance, Afterlife, The Sundering and Dawn Eternal were leading the charge, but Arathian Knights, Thornguard, Magic and Mayhem, Omerta and a few multi-guild alliances were close behind. For the Horde, only Demise, Clan Silver Fox, and Blackfist Clan were initially attempting MC. The Blackfist Clan were set back by player problems but has since come back to MC as a group of guilds known as "The Collective", a coalition that died mid 2006 when the leaders decided to part ways. Afterlife was second guild to take Ragnaros down game-wide on or around April 26th. Afterlife was the first Alliance guild to beat Ragnaros, the first kill belonging to Ascent from Medivh server. Dawn Eternal and the Sundering were both fairly quick to defeat Ragnaros after Afterlife, however, it would take several of the other guilds many more months to defeat him.

Between May and August of '05, part of the officership of Arathian Knights split off to form the Eternal Ascendants with the a guild alliance formed around the old Grey Apostles. Encore was formed by some ex-Thornguard members, and grew rapidly when Fatal Tendencies disbanded. Until both guilds grew big enough to raid on their own, Mystique and Avowry formed an alliance to raid Molten Core and Onyxia as well. Mystique later disbanded and reformed under the banner of Evocati, and began to tackle raiding challenges with renewed vigor. Another landmark kill for the server was achieved when Dawn Eternal became the 5th guild worldwide to slay Nefarian. Demise was the first Horde guild on the server to kill Nefarian followed by Wretched and Wrought from Ruin (former Clan Silver Fox members).

The guild landscape is always in flux, with Dawn Eternal losing some members to a new guild, Heist back in early 06. As well, several other notable guilds (Black Tide, Eternal Ascendants and Magic and Mayhem) completely disbanded for various reasons, most centering around membership and recruitment issues as guilds with more progression filled spots that had become available in their own rosters.

Ahn'Qiraj & Naxxramas
The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj opening event completed on Cenarius Tuesday February 21, 2006. While initial effort had been quite good, it tapered off after a period of two weeks and Cenarius dropped quickly in the rankings for the gate opening. The "chosen one" of Cenarius is Tregga, a dwarven priest from The Sundering guild. Efforts to catapult Tregga into the proper reputation rank proceeded briskly with some melodrama over his being picked. In the end, participating guilds, spearheaded by Dawn Eternal, The Sundering, Afterlife, and Eventide(not to mention plenty of other smaller guilds who wanted to contribute their time) submitted their items and Tregga was able to start and complete the Sceptre quest over the following weeks. With the completion of the war supplies quest, and the moving of the war material to Silithus the stage was set for the gong to be rung. Tregga rang the gong and quickly logged off, as it was apparent what would follow. The opening event, like many other servers, was problematic with poor server performance as players flocked to Silithus to see the event and participate. More than a few end game capable guilds chose to forego the event and rushed directly into the new instances. The server crashed twice; which isn't quite as bad as some servers like Lightbringer which went down a total of 11 times the night of their opening.

Guild progression in the two instances has been brisk with a minimum of inter-guild drama. Within a week and a few days both Afterlife and Heist had downed the Twin Emperors and a number of other guilds had progressed to that fight. After made killable, C'thun has been downed by (in order) Afterlife, Heist and The Sundering all within the same week. Out of the two optional bosses, Ouru has been killed by Afterlife, Heist, and The Sundering. No guild has yet to claim a kill on the now proper (non bugged) version of Viscidus. With Naxxramas out, the top Alliance guilds have started to tread through Naxxramas at this time with Afterlife claiming a world first on Grand Widow Faerlina. Wrought from Ruin has claimed Horde firsts by killing the Twin Emperors and C'Thun, and have now switched focus to Naxxramas, clearing the Spider Wing, Instructor Razuvious, and snagging Horde firsts on Patchwerk and Grobbulus (so far). Demise and Wretched are close behind; Wretched has killed the Twin Emperors, Instructor Razuvious, and Anub'Rekhan; Demise, while they abandoned Ahn'Qiraj after Huhuran, have also cleared the Spider Wing, Instructor Razuvious, and Noth the Plaguebringer.

Burning Crusade
After the release of the Burning Crusade, many guilds of Cenarius were badly shaken. However, many of the older guilds still remained strong, with the dwarf priest Metaphysic of Afterlife racing to become one of the first, if not the first US level 70, and fellow guild member Tenai becoming the server first 70 Draenei Shaman. By May, almost all of the older guilds that would continue on were reestablished at 70, and progressing well into endgame BC content. As had happened for almost all of 60 endgame, the old EQ veterans of Afterlife raced through content far ahead of the rest of the server, entering the Black Temple and dispatching the first boss, Naj'entus, in the first weeks following its release. Following behind Afterlife was, once again, the alliance guild Heist. The newly formed guild Synthesis claimed its spot in progression soon after its formation, and the Horde side was once again led by Wrought from Ruin, which has recently been overtaken by Impulse, a relatively new guild. However, Eventide, the guild led by Ciderhelm and one of three Cenarius guilds to down Kel'Thuzad pre-BC, had troubles now. After Ciderhelm left WoW, Eventide began to decline even more sharply than before, losing its place in progression and losing many old, experienced members as well. But the old Eventide members wouldn't give it up that easily; the guild eventually reformed as Fuse, and reclaimed its position in the top three guilds of Cenarius.

Wrath of the Lich King
With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, it was a race to see who would be realm firsts in each respectable class and guilds for both sides. Marthe of Afterlife became the first level 80 on the realm. Afterlife also claimed realm first Kel'Thuzad and Malygos kills. Unreasonable was the first guild on Cenarius to down Sartharion with 3 drakes, 25 man. The first guilds on the realm to achieve Glory of the Raider were The Sundering for Alliance and Impulse for the Horde. Many guilds soon followed suit. With the upcomming 3.1 patch, Ulduar will await the many guilds on Cenarius.

The 3.1 patch saw the arrival of the new epic instance Ulduar. Two alliance guilds emerged as the front runners to server progression: Afterlife and Arathian Knights. Afterlife claimed most server firsts with Arathian Knights trailing right behind by a few days. However Arathian Knights eventually overtook Afterlife with their kill of the hard mode encounter of the Keeper, Freya on August 9th, 2009 and the Server First Celestial Defender kill of Algalon the Observer on August 30th, 2009. Arathian Knights Algalon kill was shortly after the release of patch 3.2 which introduced the next progression instance Trial of the Grand Crusader. As of today two alliance guilds and two horde guilds (Impulse and Wrought from Ruin have saved Azeroth from Algalon). Ulduar was finally completed November 2nd, 2009 when Arathian Knights defeated Yogg-Saron Alone in the Darkness, Server First Death's Demise.

The 3.2 patch introduced the new instance Trial of the Grand Crusader. A similar trend emerged with two alliance guilds battling for server first kills of each of the 5 encounters, Arathian Knights and Afterlife. Anub'arak was defeated by Arathian Knights October 13, 2009 with kills shortly afterward by Afterlife on October 22, 2009 and the horde guild Impulse on October 29, 2009. On November 4, 2009 the instance was completed when Arathian Knights completed the Tribute to Insanity, completing the entire instance with 50 attempts remaining. Afterlife have each completed the Tribute to Mad Skill (45-49 attempts remaining) and Impulse has earned the Tribute to Skill (25-44 attempts remaining). The feats of these guilds have put Cenarius back on the radar in the United States ranking in the top 20 for progression.

Alliance

 * Assman - Gnome Warlock - First Cenarian to reach level 75.


 * Pebble - Gnome Mage - First Cenarian to reach level 60. Second overall servers to Lvl 60.
 * Metaphysic - Dwarf Priest of Afterlife and first Cenarian to reach level 70. Debated to be the first US 70.
 * Thott - Runs Thottbot and 1 of 3 GL of Afterlife.
 * Tregga - The "Chosen One" for Ahn'Qiraj and Old GM of The Sundering.
 * Marthe - First Cenarian to reach level 80, 5:35PM PST/November 14/2008
 * Fray - First Cenarian Death Knight to reach level 80
 * Incatius - First Cenarian Hunter to reach level 80
 * Luckee - First Cenarian Rogue to reach level 80
 * Lemm - First Cenarian Shaman to reach level 80
 * Biny - First Cenarian Warlock to reach level 80, and famous "AH Bomber"
 * Icecrit - First Cenarian to earn the achievement "Northrend Vanguard"
 * Bloodmourne - First Death Knight to earn "Bloodsail Admiral" title on any U.S. Server

Horde

 * Bucker - GM of Wretched and owner of Horde's first Sulfuras.
 * Garrote - Famous Role Player. Known for annoying players in General Chat on the horde side.
 * Klash - Second Cenarius Horde Warrior to reach level 60 and first player to own Thunderfury.
 * Rhinock - First Horde player to get the "of the Horde" title.
 * Araten - First Cenarian Druid to reach level 80
 * Cynyde - First Cenarian Mage to reach level 80
 * Zymist - First Cenarian Paladin to reach level 80
 * Asure - First Cenarian Priest to reach level 80

Alliance

 * Afterlife website
 * Alliance of Blades
 * Apostles Light
 * Arathian Knights website
 * Avowry website
 * Carpe Diem
 * Darkmoon Sentinels website
 * Dawn Eternal website
 * Diablos website
 * Divinity website
 * DragonCartel Website
 * Driven website
 * Drachenorden website
 * Elysium website
 * Evocati website
 * eXiles website
 * Fac ut Vivas website
 * Fallen Angelz website
 * Focus website
 * Formosa website
 * Fuse website
 * Guardians of Twilight website
 * Heist website
 * Indignation website
 * Keepers of the Dream website
 * The Knights Who Say Ni
 * Legacy Reborn website
 * L U G Website
 * Maelstrom website
 * Pirate website
 * Pirate Penguins website
 * Raining Chaos website
 * Sphaera website
 * The Sundering website
 * The Usual Suspects website
 * The Eighth Sin / website
 * WipE website
 * Seven Deadly Sins Website
 * Team Tater website

Horde

 * Almost Casual website
 * Awaken website
 * Awry website
 * BloodRage
 * Children of the Damned website
 * Corsair website
 * Demise website
 * Exiled website
 * Fallen website
 * Forbidding Sea Pirates website
 * Harons Heros
 * Impulse website
 * Lords of Ancient Sin website
 * Million MPH website
 * Mustache Mafia
 * Perdition website
 * Ring of Shadows website
 * Shadowbornë website
 * Strife website
 * The Great Unwashed website
 * The Warguard website
 * Unnatural Axe
 * Wretched website
 * Wrought from Ruin website
 * Revenant
 * Windspear Clan website