Earth Song Falls, Inner Maraudon.
To save time, Gabryell skipped every mob they could safely skip. They ignored the turtles along the path and jumped straight down the waterfall, then avoided the hydras wandering below instead of fighting them.
"Casters, stay away from the Diemetradons. They have an AoE silence."
The Subterranean Diemetradons in Maraudon were annoying exactly because of that silence. During the big Maraudon pulls, getting silenced by accident without Ice Block available usually meant you could start praying.
"Don't pull the Theradrim Guardian patrols together with the Diemetradons. Wait for the patrols to come over, then kill them separately."
When an elite Theradrim Guardian died, it split into three non-elite Theradrim Shardlings, which had to be cleaned up with caster AoE. If they pulled the Guardians together with the Diemetradons and the casters got silenced, the pull could easily turn into a wipe.
Gabryell's group cleared the Diemetradons at the entrance first, then waited for the first Theradrim Guardian patrol to come over before killing it.
Two high-spell-damage Mages and one high-spell-damage Warlock made AoE extremely efficient. Blizzard and Rain of Fire burned the patrol down quickly.
"Elemental Earth. Nice."
Maraudon's stone mobs had a decent chance to drop Elemental Earth. Gabryell had the group on Group Loot, so ordinary white materials like that could be picked up directly.
They used the same method all the way up the slope. The left side led across the bridge toward Princess Theradras's chamber, while the right side led toward Tinkerer Gizlock.
"Left or right?" Carlos asked.
It wasn't like he could just guess his way through Maraudon. Without Gabryell leading, they'd be lost for ages.
Gabryell thought for a moment, then decided, "Left. Across the bridge."
They would kill Landslide first, then head straight for Princess Theradras. If luck was on their side, she might even cough up the Blade of Eternal Darkness.
After killing Princess, they could jump down into the pool, deal with Rotgrip, then climb ashore from Rotgrip's cave and kill Tinkerer Gizlock.
This reverse route saved the most time and made the run more efficient.
"Got it."
Carlos was glad someone actually knew the route and led the way across the bridge.
"Take the slope on the right."
Gabryell guided him toward Landslide's cave.
Players unfamiliar with Maraudon would definitely get lost in its maze-like layout and have no idea where half the bosses were. But after farming gold in Maraudon for a few days, they would realize the terrain was not complicated at all. Once you knew the routes, it was almost muscle memory.
They cleared the Theradrim Guardian patrols along the way. There were two patrol groups here whose routes overlapped. If someone unfamiliar with the area fought one group in the wrong spot, the other patrol could walk in mid-fight. Two waves at once would fill the ground with Shardlings and make a wipe very likely.
Gabryell was not going to make a rookie mistake like that. He had Hugo pull one patrol over first and kill it in advance, so even if the patrol from Princess's side came by later, it would not add.
"This Primordial Behemoth hits hard."
After clearing the patrol, they pulled the Primordial Behemoth near the bridge.
"This mob does AoE magic damage. I'll put Dampen Magic on you."
Gabryell found it strange that almost every stone giant in Azeroth seemed to have some kind of AoE magic damage. Maybe Blizzard considered their stomps elemental damage, and elemental damage counted as magic.
He cast Dampen Magic on Igor and DeathScum to reduce the damage they took and ease the healing pressure.
"Much better." DeathScum let out a breath. Without Dampen Magic, his health had been dropping almost as fast as the tanks'.
"The trash here is insane. Drag any random mob from here into outer Maraudon and it could pass for a boss."
Carlos could feel his health dropping faster too. The pressure was obvious.
"That's why five level 45 players basically can't clear Maraudon," Gabryell said. "If it were that easy, there wouldn't have been so few guilds able to clear it during testing."
Even in later WoW Classic, after Maraudon had been toned down, very few groups could clear it at level 45. For ordinary players, bringing a five-man level 45 group here was suicide. In the original 2004 version, mob stats had not been adjusted down. Their armor and damage were both higher, making the dungeon at least one tier harder.
The real wipe machine was Princess Theradras. At level 51, with multiple abilities and brutal damage, she could easily delete a level 45 tank.
Forget level 45. Even a level 60 main trying to solo her could get launched across the room if they tried to face-tank her for too long.
During testing, Madhouse had been tortured by Princess until they wanted to quit. In the end, they disbanded in frustration and gave up on fully clearing Maraudon.
After killing the Primordial Behemoth near the bridge, Carlos let out a breath. One trash mob had already felt like a boss. No wonder Madhouse had wiped here more than fifty times before.
"Purple!"
Lunatori, who was looting the corpse, suddenly called out, pulling everyone's attention to the roll window.
Nightblade (Epic)
Binds when equipped
Two-Hand Sword
97 - 146 Damage Speed 2.80
(43.4 DPS)
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 39
Chance on hit: Sends a shadowy bolt at the enemy, causing 125 to 275 Shadow damage.
A two-handed sword, level 39, and usable right now.
"Holy shit, Lunatori is insane." Igor was the most excited person in the group.
This was exactly the kind of weapon a Retribution Paladin dreamed about. If he equipped it, his DPS would definitely jump.
Overexcited, Igor clicked Need first.
Then he rolled a 6.
Of course he did.
"No!"
Igor nearly collapsed. The system hated him.
Same rule as always: for non-raid BoE epics, everyone rolled Need. That rule could not be broken. Otherwise, if BoE epics like Teebu's Blazing Longsword or Cloudkeeper Legplates dropped later, would only Rogues and Warriors be allowed to roll?
Hugo rolled a 98.
"Man, you really rolled a six on an epic? That hurts."
With a 98, Nightblade went straight to Hugo.
"Hugo, hand it over," Igor said from across the room.
The four roommates from Dorm 301 were basically family, so it did not matter who won the roll in-game.
"I'll give it to you," Hugo said, "but you're washing my socks for a month."
Igor looked at his bottom-tier DPS, barely above the tanks, then gritted his teeth.
"Fine. Socks for a month. Give me Nightblade."
Having secured a month of free sock-washing labor, Hugo happily traded the sword to him.
Igor equipped Nightblade immediately. With a purple two-handed sword in hand, he instantly regained his confidence.
"Let's see who calls my DPS low now."
It looked like his Retribution Paladin path was going all the way to the end.
Gabryell did not have the heart to discourage him. A BoE epic weapon could not fix Retribution Paladin's DPS problems. That was a class tuning issue, not a gear issue.
Blame Blizzard, not the player.
"Take the slope on the right," Gabryell said.
Carlos led the way up toward Landslide's cave.
"Two Primordial Behemoths."
Seeing the two giants at the cave entrance made him hesitate.
"It's fine," Gabryell said. "Split them. One tank each. Carlos takes one, Quell takes the other. Keep them apart so the AoE damage doesn't overlap. We kill Carlos's first, then Quell's."
He arranged it that way to give Warquell more time to build threat, letting everyone DPS freely afterward. A Protection Paladin's threat still was not as stable as a Warrior's.
As long as neither tank ate both Behemoths' AoE at once, the pull was manageable.
"ServerHeals, shield Quell on cooldown," Gabryell said. He was worried the healers might lose track of the off-tank and let him drop.
Protection Paladins had one big advantage here: Priests could shield them as much as they wanted. If this were a Warrior or Bear Druid, mindlessly shielding them would definitely get complaints, because shields meant no rage.
With ServerHeals applying Power Word: Shield every 15 seconds, plus steady healing from Renew, Regrowth, and Rejuvenation, Warquell's health stayed safely above the danger line.
After the first Behemoth died, everyone immediately switched to the one Warquell was tanking. Since his threat was already stable, they could go all out.
"Why didn't it drop another purple?"
The two Primordial Behemoths did not drop any more BoE epics, disappointing everyone who had been hoping for another jackpot.
Gabryell smiled. If BoE epics dropped that easily, they would not sell for hundreds of gold at the Auction House and still be hard to find.
With the two gatekeepers down, it was time for the boss inside: Landslide.
"This boss summons little rock adds. If you leave them alone, they'll die on their own after a while."
Landslide actually had a bugged farming method. Gabryell had never used it himself, but he knew about it. You pulled the boss to the crystals by the wall outside the cave, then used the terrain to jump back and forth, forcing the boss to keep running around.
The bug was mainly used to make the boss summon little rock adds endlessly. Players would tag the adds with a bit of damage, then let them die on their own.
As long as an add had taken damage, its automatic death counted as your kill and gave you loot rights. That let players farm Elemental Earth endlessly. Even with bad luck, you could get more than ten per hour. With good luck, thirty was not impossible.
"So it just keeps summoning forever?" Carlos asked.
"It does."
Carlos understood immediately. "Then we won't kill them. I'll tank the boss, and Quell can hold the adds."
"No problem," Warquell said.
Practice made perfect. He was already getting very comfortable with add tanking and might be the most experienced Protection Paladin off-tank in the game right now.
"The little rock adds explode," Gabryell reminded him. "Keep them away from melee."
In truth, he could not remember whether the explosion actually damaged melee, because he never fought Landslide properly when solo farming Maraudon. To be safe, it was better to have Warquell pull them away.
"Got it."
"Go. Kill this, and we should catch up to Freedom."
Gabryell estimated that if Freedom was not fighting Tinkerer Gizlock, they should also be on Landslide right now. He just did not know whether their tank, NoobSlayer, could hold up after already dying once on Noxxion.