"How come we're back at Garr? Aren't we fighting that giant fire elemental from earlier?"
Gabryell's order to return to Garr's room had everyone confused. Baron Geddon was patrolling right in front of them, yet instead of preparing to fight him, they had turned around and come all the way back.
Carlos asked, "Are we taking another route around him?"
He meant the other path deeper into Molten Core, toward Ragnaros.
"We're not taking a detour," Gabryell said. "And we're not skipping any bosses. I brought everyone back here because we're pulling Baron Geddon all the way to Garr's room and killing him here."
"All the way here?" Smooch sounded surprised. As the Hunter handling most of the raid's pulls, she knew exactly how far that was. "That's a pretty long pull."
Gabryell chuckled. "That's the point. This room gives us plenty of space to work with. The tunnel where Geddon patrols is way too cramped. If he drops an AoE in there, nobody has anywhere to go."
"Yeah, screw fighting him in that tunnel," Carlos agreed. "There's enough room here to do whatever we need."
Gabryell turned to Smooch.
"This is where we find out how good your pulling really is."
The dungeon-farming meta in this world hadn't developed to the point where Hunters routinely used pets to gather entire packs for AoE groups. Most Hunters barely had any reason to practice that kind of pull. Plenty of them probably hadn't even put Eyes of the Beast on their bars, treating it as nothing more than a gimmick spell.
Smooch was apparently one of them.
"How am I supposed to get him all the way here? You want me to kite a boss?"
She could imagine kiting trash. A boss was another story entirely. If Geddon had any kind of ranged attack, one hit might be enough to send her straight to the graveyard.
Gabryell had no choice but to walk her through it.
"Put Eyes of the Beast on your bar. Use it to control your pet and send the pet in to aggro Geddon. Once he starts coming toward us, don't Feign Death too early."
Then he turned to Carlos.
"Carlos, the second Smooch calls that she's in combat, bandage yourself so you get pulled into combat too. Then Bloodrage, Demoralizing Shout, and pick up the boss."
Back to Smooch.
"The moment you enter combat, call it. Carlos needs time to get ready. You only Feign Death after he has Geddon."
The handoff between Hunter and tank was the important part. If Smooch dropped aggro too early, Geddon could turn around before Carlos established threat and start running back down the tunnel.
"And Smooch, if Carlos doesn't pick him up immediately and Geddon is still coming for you, do not panic. Most importantly, don't run backward into the raid. If something goes wrong, die where you are. Losing one Hunter is better than wiping forty people."
That was exactly how inexperienced pullers turned a bad situation into a disaster. Boss came charging at them, panic took over, and instead of giving the tank time to fix the pull, they ran straight into everyone else.
"So... I'm pulling now?"
For once, Smooch actually sounded nervous. It was her first time using a pet to pull a raid boss.
Nobody got better without doing it for real.
"Go," Gabryell encouraged her. "Don't overthink it."
That was what he said out loud.
What he did next told a slightly different story.
He whispered DesertWanderer.
"Soulstone Snowy."
Better safe than sorry. If the whole raid wiped, at least they wouldn't have to corpse-run all the way back through Molten Core.
Desert replied with nothing but three dots.
Then he immediately made a Soulstone and put it on Danielly.
Smooch cast Eyes of the Beast, took control of her Wind Serpent, and sent it down the tunnel in search of Baron Geddon.
"There's no boss here."
"Relax. He patrols through there. Wait for him to come back."
"Oh."
Smooch waited.
A little while later, her voice suddenly came alive.
"He's coming! Look at this guy go—he's got a motor strapped to him! I'm pulling!"
"Go for it."
"I got him—ah! He killed my Wind Serpent!"
Pure inexperience.
The Wind Serpent even had Dive, yet Geddon had still caught and killed it. Smooch had clearly gotten too close before pulling and hadn't left the pet enough room to escape.
Fortunately, the pet dying didn't matter anymore.
Smooch was already in combat.
And Baron Geddon was coming to deal with her personally.
"He's coming! He's coming!"
The nerves were starting to get to her.
"Carlos, get ready," Gabryell called. "Everyone else, hands off. Susie, stay out for now. Stand back and watch."
He deliberately kept Susie out of the initial pickup. Carlos was their first Fire Resistance tank, but if something went wrong and Geddon flattened him, Gabryell wanted the second one alive and ready.
As Baron Geddon came into view, Carlos activated Bloodrage and hit him with Demoralizing Shout.
Smooch waited until the boss was almost on top of her.
Then she Feigned Death.
"Keep Carlos up. DPS, wait. Give him time to build threat."
Geddon's basic attacks carried heavy Fire damage. Without resistance, his swings could hit for well over a thousand, making him brutal to tank in ordinary gear.
Carlos was sitting at roughly 300 Fire Resistance.
With that much FR, Geddon's regular attacks were manageable. As long as the healers stayed awake, Carlos wasn't going to die to basic swings.
He slowly dragged the boss farther into Garr's room, trying to settle him somewhere the healers could comfortably reach.
"That's enough, Carlos. Stop there."
Gabryell called him to a halt around the middle of the room.
"Ranged and healers, stack on me. Melee, be ready to move when he AoEs. Carlos, turn him around. Keep his back to the raid."
The ranged DPS and healers stacked tightly together.
Gabryell wanted them grouped for Living Bomb. If everyone scattered randomly across the room, whoever got targeted would have a much harder time finding a clean escape route without running past someone else.
Melee had a different problem.
Baron Geddon's Inferno was vicious.
Anyone who stayed in melee range once the pulses started ramping up could be dead within seconds.
Carlos turned the boss away and gave the melee a clean opening from behind.
"Priests, dispel the healers first, then casters. Ignore melee."
Geddon had started spreading Ignite Mana through the raid.
The debuff burned 400 mana every three seconds and dealt an equal amount of Fire damage to the affected player. Worse, it lasted five minutes if nobody removed it.
The damage itself wasn't the real danger.
The mana loss was.
Leave Ignite Mana sitting on the healers and they would be dry in no time.
Five Priests were more than enough for the job. With Gabryell's addon displaying debuffs clearly and letting them dispel with a click, cleaning Ignite Mana off the raid was dramatically easier than it would have been normally.
At this point, his addon was practically nerfing level-60 raids for them.
What they still didn't have were proper boss warnings.
There were no timers telling them which ability Geddon was about to use, and no giant alert announcing who had been targeted by Living Bomb.
Gabryell had to watch the raid frames himself.
The moment a dangerous debuff appeared, he would call the target.
And naturally, the first one was—
"Of course it's Seven."
Seven's raid frame lit up.
"Seven, Ice Block. Right where you are."
Seven had no idea he had been turned into a Living Bomb.
He froze for a second.
A second too long.
Gabryell watched the timer ticking down.
"Hurry up! Too slow—ten-thousand-gold fine!"
That got a reaction.
Seven was already dirt poor. The words ten thousand gold scared him badly enough that he stopped caring what was happening and slammed Ice Block on the spot.
Living Bomb disappeared.
Mages and Paladins had the easiest time when Geddon picked them. Ice Block and Divine Shield could both save them from the mechanic without forcing them to explode in the middle of everyone.
Almost immediately afterward, Baron Geddon stopped attacking Carlos.
Inferno.
The boss planted himself in place and began pulsing fire in every direction.
It looked disturbingly familiar.
Just like Princess Theradras back in Maraudon, he had stopped moving and started "farting" death all around himself.
The difference was that Geddon's version hurt a hell of a lot more.
Nobody wanted to sit inside Inferno.
Take a few pulses too many and you were dead.
"Melee, out! Go, go, go!"
Players scattered away from the boss.
Then Gabryell noticed one person who wasn't moving.
"Carlos! Don't tank that! Get out!"
Habit was a dangerous thing.
Carlos was still standing there attacking Geddon.
In his head, he was the main tank. Tanks stood in front of bosses and took the damage.
Inferno disagreed.
By the time Carlos finally realized that he needed to run too, it was already too late. The later pulses tore through his health faster than the healers could possibly keep up.
"Holy shit."
Those were Carlos's last words before he dropped.
Two melee DPS were too slow as well and burned to death beside him.
Both were Fury Warriors.
The Rogues had shown much better survival instincts.
The instant Inferno started hurting, every one of them hit Sprint and got the hell out.
"Susie, take him as soon as Inferno ends."
For once, Gabryell was extremely glad he had been overly cautious.
Keeping Susie out of the initial pickup had just saved the pull.
If both of their Fire Resistance tanks had died, David and Night had no FR sets ready for Geddon.
At that point, there wouldn't have been much left for the healers to save.
The pull would have been over.