The Arcanist Bindings went to Windrush.
That was the problem with having so many Mages in the raid. If everyone wanted a turn at getting gear, it took forever to cycle through them unless Mage loot kept dropping nonstop.
"Why the hell did I roll the class everyone plays?"
OldSeven was starting to question his life choices.
Playing a Mage had turned him into the Floor King. He had less gold than almost anyone else, and when loot dropped, he had to wait longer than everyone.
Where was the justice in that?
"That's because you suck."
Coldhands glanced at the several thousand gold he had to his name.
Now that was what a real Mage's bankroll looked like.
"Watch the jump. Don't fall into the lava."
There was no way they were taking the long route and clearing everything like they had yesterday. That would waste far too much time.
Gabryell led the raid past the two mobs guarding the entrance, then moved to the right and jumped down onto the rocks below.
It was a shortcut toward the third boss.
The jump was notorious for screwing people over. Anyone bad at judging the distance could easily overshoot the rock and land straight in the lava.
Hunters heading toward Rag to solo farm giants used the same route.
"Follow my jump."
Gabryell went first.
He landed cleanly on the rock.
The others followed.
"Looks like I gave you guys way too much credit."
Seven or eight people sailed straight past the rock and splashed into the lava.
They immediately started hopping around in a panic, desperately trying to stay alive.
"Stop jumping forward! There's a Firelord ahead. Don't pull it."
Someone was bound to panic, jump too far, and aggro the Firelord standing near the shore.
"Carlos, pull the Firelord. Healers, keep the people swimming in lava alive. Once Carlos has it, climb out from the front."
A brief silence followed.
Then Carlos coughed.
"Uh... about that. I'm down here too."
Gabryell stared at his screen.
"Susie, you pull it."
"Yeah... about that."
Susie sounded genuinely embarrassed.
"I fell in too."
Gabryell almost lost it.
"David, Night. Don't tell me you two fell in too."
David immediately answered.
"How could I possibly fall in? Keep me healed. I'll pull it."
Finally.
Someone reliable.
When it mattered, David could still be counted on.
"I fell in! Keep me healed!"
David had charged forward too fast and slipped into the lava as well.
The only good news was that he had gotten close enough to aggro the Firelord.
Gabryell didn't even know what to feel anymore.
"Spam David! David, you idiot, get that damn Firelord onto dry land! Nobody can keep you alive from there, and melee can't even hit it!"
"David, you moron! You made me blow Lay on Hands!"
SevenDays couldn't help complaining.
David's health had been dropping so fast in the lava that he'd been forced to use Lay on Hands.
Burning one Lay on Hands to save the raid was still worth it.
David finally dragged the Firelord onto the shore, and the melee could get in.
"Melee, kill the Lava Spawns before they split. Everyone still in the lava, get out already. Stop making the healers work overtime."
Once the Firelord was nearly dead, Gabryell warned them again.
"Recover where you are after this. Don't go charging down there like idiots. There's a Lava Surger patrolling below."
He wasn't letting anyone turn one stupid mistake into another.
"Uh... looks like we got something."
Once the Firelord died, David noticed the corpse had loot.
Without thinking much about it, he crouched down to check.
Purple.
"An epic?"
Gabryell blinked.
Were they really going to be this lucky tonight?
A purple this early?
Maybe the game was warming them up for an orange later.
"Looks like it," David said.
Then he linked the item.
"Doesn't look like Tier. It's an off-set piece... and the stats are insane."
Cloudkeeper Legplates (Epic)
Binds when equipped
Legs Plate
617 Armor
+20 Stamina
+20 Strength
+20 Agility
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 57
Use: Increases Attack Power by 100 for 30 sec. (15 Min Cooldown)
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Gabryell stared at the item.
He had expected another T1 piece at best.
Instead, they had gotten Cloudkeeper Legplates, one of the most valuable BoE epics that could drop in Molten Core.
MC could also spit out Alcor's Sunrazor, but it wasn't in the same price league as Cloudkeepers or Teebu's Blazing Longsword.
And Teebu's was the real jackpot.
A single Teebu's could easily be worth ten pairs of Cloudkeepers.
"Damn, those pants are insane," DaVinci said.
BladeSaint stared at the tooltip.
"A hundred Attack Power? Holy shit."
A hundred extra Attack Power for thirty seconds was no joke.
For a Fury Warrior popping it during Execute, the boost would be massive.
Astral looked down at the Obsidian Edged Blade in his hands.
"Good thing I already got a weapon."
Since he had already taken the Obsidian Edged Blade, he was out of the running for the Cloudkeepers.
Still, Astral was convinced the sword in his hands had to be better than a pair of pants.
Why?
He couldn't really explain it.
It was a weapon.
Weapons were obviously better than pants.
"DaVinci, BladeSaint, roll," Gabryell said. "Winner pays fifty DKP."
Cloudkeepers were easily worth fifty.
If Teebu's Blazing Longsword had dropped, he would have charged at least a hundred DKP.
Gabryell almost felt bad for Astral.
He had taken the Obsidian Edged Blade and lost his chance to compete for the Cloudkeepers because of it.
In actual market value, the difference between the two was enormous.
"Whoever wins equips them now," Gabryell added. "Anything that drops in a guild raid stays in the raid. Nobody puts it on the AH."
It was worth repeating.
Gabryell would have let guild members compete for something as valuable as Teebu's Blazing Longsword if equipping it made the raid stronger.
But taking guild loot and selling it for personal profit?
Absolutely not.
DaVinci and BladeSaint rolled.
"GG."
DaVinci won.
The lucky bastard had just picked up the most valuable piece of gear the raid had seen so far.
He equipped the Cloudkeeper Legplates immediately.
His stats jumped noticeably.
Then he dragged the pants onto his action bar.
Once Execute came around, his DPS was going to spike hard.
"Hahaha! Looks like falling into the lava actually brings good luck," David said.
Gabryell laughed.
If only it worked that way.
Maybe next time they should all jump into the lava together.
Would Teebu's start dropping for everyone too?
"Recover first. Carlos, go pull that patrolling Surger over."
The worst part of Molten Core was the trash.
If they didn't finish everything in one day, they came back the next night and had to clear a whole pile of it again.
After seeing two BoE epics drop so early, Gabryell couldn't help hoping they might get even more while clearing forward.
Unfortunately, luck didn't work that way.
One pull could shower you with epics.
The next ten could give you absolutely nothing.
The rest of the trash refused to cooperate.
Not another BoE dropped.
By the time they reached Garr's area, the boss himself was already dead, but Gabryell still had everyone clear the surrounding mobs.
They would be fighting Baron Geddon later, and he planned to pull the boss back here.
The area around Garr was wide open, giving everyone plenty of room to spread out and move.
Fighting Geddon inside the narrow tunnels was much more dangerous.
One bad Living Bomb could take half the raid with it.
Only experienced farm groups would bother fighting him in the tunnel.
For a progression raid, refusing to drag him back to Garr's room was basically asking to wipe.
"Carlos, Susie, switch to your Fire Resistance gear."
Next came the lava packs.
The nastiest trash in Molten Core.
Without tanks in FR gear, trying to eat the damage from two fire elementals at once was asking to get deleted.
Carlos and Susie both had Fire Resistance sets sitting in their bags.
After swapping gear, their health dropped noticeably, but their Fire Resistance shot up.
"Paladins in Groups One and Two, switch to Fire Resistance Aura."
The tanks still needed a little more FR.
With the aura, they would be sitting around 300 Fire Resistance.
Gabryell had no illusions about getting through the upcoming lava pack without casualties.
Even years later in WoW Classic, overgeared farm raids still found ways to lose people to these packs.
The goal was simple.
Get the pack down.
Casualties didn't matter.