WoW Exploiters Cleared New Mythic Raid 'First' Using Grey Items, Got Banned, And Then Did It Again

Last week, the highly anticipated World of Warcraft raid, Liberation of Undermine, officially launched, and a group of exploiters made history by clearing the entire raid on Mythic difficulty. What's more surprising is that this achievement came with an unusual twist: the exploiters used grey items to do so.

According to WoW community manager Kaivax, the group, known as RAoV (Random Acts of Violation) Quality Assurance, managed to kill every boss in the raid while wearing "practically useless" grey items. This feat was documented on various raid-tracking sites such as WoWProgress, Raider.IO, and even Blizzard's own WoW Hall of Fame.

As soon as this achievement went viral, players began scratching their heads over how it was possible. However, Blizzard was already hot on the trail, investigating the matter and detecting an exploit used by the group to cast an internal spell that allowed them to kill Mythic raid bosses, including Chrome King Gallywix.

"We immediately began an investigation into these unusual kills, and we detected a group of new accounts using an exploit to cast an internal spell to kill Mythic raid bosses, including Chrome King Gallywix," WoW community manager Kaivax said on the game's forums. "Our security engineers quickly moved to put a stop to the cheat and take action against the accounts involved, and we have cleared the Hall of Fame to await the rightful winner to the RWF."

But it seemed like the problem had been solved, until a second incident occurred just two days later on March 10. A new guild, appearing to be the same group but using the name "ecnarussAeR ytilauQ VoAR" (RAoV Quality Reassurance spelled backwards), struck again, clearing every boss in the raid using the exploit.

What's more amusing is that one of the exploiters on Raider.IO listed for the second clear quoted Kaivax's forum post and responded with a cheeky comment: "QA is really hard." The second clear was also quickly scrubbed from raid-tracking sites, leaving players wondering if this was another instance of the same group reusing their exploit.

Interestingly, the guild committing these recent exploits shares a name with an older hacking and exploit group that was shut down in 2018 after Blizzard issued them a Cease and Desist letter. It's currently unclear if this new RAoV is the same one from years ago or merely a new group coopting the old name.

Many of the exploiters used names similar to various WoW YouTubers, seemingly as a means of throwing investigators off the scent. Players are already gathering evidence that may point towards a third clear using the exploit, though time will tell if that is indeed the case.

In the meantime, Team Liquid and Team Echo are currently in a race to bring down the raid's final two bosses legitimately, while WoW players who couldn't care less about the Race to World First are pouring over newly revealed details on how WoW's in-the-works player-housing system will handle interior decoration.

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