Hugo ended up with the Giantstalker's Gloves. He was so happy that he practically started bouncing around the dorm.
The Salamander Scale Pants went to Lunatori. Not a single Paladin bothered bidding on them.
Leather pants? On a Paladin?
Please. A proper Paladin wore plate from head to toe. Anything less was an insult to the class.
They're going to regret that.
Gabryell could only shake his head. Once those Paladins realized just how bad their tier-set legs were for healing, they'd be kicking themselves for passing up such a good piece.
"Alright, everyone. Mages, portals to Ironforge. We're heading back."
Since they still couldn't douse the runes, the only two bosses left within their reach in MC were Sulfuron Harbinger and Golemagg the Incinerator.
There was plenty of time left in the lockout, so Gabryell decided to leave them for another day.
Did that mean he was throwing away their momentum for no reason?
Of course not.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
By stopping now, he could let the earlier trash respawn. When they returned, they'd be able to farm more reputation with the Hydraxian Waterlords until they reached Honored.
That would unlock Hands of the Enemy, the next step in Duke Hydraxis's questline.
They'd still need to collect the required hands from the bosses, including Sulfuron, but once that was done, they could obtain Aqual Quintessence and start dousing the runes.
If everything went according to plan, they'd be ready to summon Majordomo Executus next week.
And after Majordomo came Ragnaros.
By now, Gabryell's authority within Fearless was firmly established. When he called for the raid to leave, nobody argued.
It wasn't until all forty players had returned to Ironforge that someone finally spoke up.
"Wait, aren't we finishing MC?"
"Not tonight. We'll come back in a couple of days."
"So what now?" David asked. "Are we done for the night?"
"Who said we're done? Molten Core isn't the only forty-man raid in the game. Did everyone forget about the Black Dragon Princess?"
David suddenly remembered.
"Oh, shit! How did I forget about her? Come on, let's go screw that dragon!"
He caught himself.
"Wait! No! I mean kill her!"
OldSeven jumped on that immediately.
"David, you dirty bastard. What the hell's going on in that head of yours? Mushy, you'd better watch this guy. He's already thinking about cheating on you with a dragon."
"Fuck off! I'm a one-woman man!"
"Sure you are. That's what every guy says right before getting caught flirting with someone else at three in the morning. Believe him if you want, Mushy. I wouldn't."
"Seven, enough," Gabryell cut in. "And if you forget your Drakefire Amulet again, you're not going back to get it. You're getting benched. Maybe that'll teach you."
During their previous trip, OldSeven had been the only one who'd forgotten his Drakefire Amulet, holding up the entire raid.
That run had been thrown together on short notice, so Gabryell had let it slide. This time, however, they were going in as an official guild raid.
There wouldn't be another free pass.
OldSeven immediately changed his tune.
"Relax. I've kept that thing in my bags ever since. I'm never putting it back in the bank."
"Good. Everyone check your Drakefire Amulets. We're heading to Theramore Isle."
The whole raid made its way to Theramore.
Quite a few members had never visited Onyxia's Lair, so Gabryell led them along the route through the water.
"Behold! I've mastered the legendary art of walking on water!"
DontPanic was strolling across the surface, looking unbearably pleased with herself while everyone else splashed through the water below.
"Whoa! How the hell are you doing that?"
Several players who weren't familiar with Priest abilities were genuinely amazed.
"Ah, my friends. That's quite a story."
DontPanic paused dramatically.
"It all started one dark and stormy night..."
And just like that, she launched into her tale.
"I was sleeping peacefully when I suddenly found myself inside an old kung fu movie. And who should I meet there but a legendary martial arts master!"
"The moment he laid eyes on me, he knew. My extraordinary talent! My incredible potential! A martial arts prodigy like me only appears once every thousand years!"
She was clearly enjoying herself.
"He practically begged me to become his disciple. And after recognizing my greatness, he personally taught me his ultimate technique!"
"The ancient art of walking on water!"
Gabryell listened to the ridiculous story, wondering why DontPanicHealz was wasting her talents playing WoW instead of writing fantasy novels.
With an imagination like that, she could probably make a name for herself as an author.
It was only 2004. A story like hers would have plenty of readers on fantasy forums.
"Bullshit!"
BigHeals finally had enough.
"It's just Levitate! A Priest spell! I can do that too!"
He'd exposed DontPanic's big secret without the slightest mercy.
Then came an awkward silence.
"Uh..."
BigHeals hesitated.
"I didn't bring any Light Feathers."
DontPanic looked even more pleased with herself.
"See that, everyone? That's what happens when you talk big and can't back it up. Don't be like him."
BigHeals was furious.
Next time, he was absolutely bringing Light Feathers!
After making their way ashore, everyone mounted up and rode toward Onyxia's Lair.
Compared to the chaos around Blackrock Mountain, the place was practically deserted.
By now, the Horde's Onyxia attunement questline was common knowledge. Detailed walkthroughs had already appeared on the forums.
But almost everyone was focused on Molten Core. Players were flocking to Blackrock Mountain, leaving Onyxia's Lair largely forgotten.
The poor Black Dragon Princess wasn't getting any respect.
She was probably sitting inside her cave, looking down at her pile of T2 helmets.
These pathetic mortals have no idea where the real loot is!
"Alright, everyone. Zone in."
The lack of other players was actually a relief. At least they wouldn't have to waste time fighting outside the entrance.
Once Fearless secured its first Onyxia kill and word spread that she dropped T2 helmets, Gabryell expected the place to become just as crowded as Blackrock Mountain.
Inside the instance, he immediately got everyone organized.
"Same buffs as before. If you need a flask, use it now."
He didn't want to spend all night dealing with the trash, so he had everyone prepare before moving in.
Since several members hadn't been there before, he quickly went over the pulls again.
"On the trash, nobody goes into melee range except the tank. Ranged, go hard, but watch your aggro."
Only a handful of players were unfamiliar with the instance, so there was no need to turn it into a lengthy explanation.
"Jump down here."
Gabryell led everyone to the right side of the entrance and had them drop to the lower level.
Once the raid had regrouped, he gave the next call.
"Smooch, pull. Bring the Warders back one at a time."
Smooch had been there during their previous attempt, so she already knew what to do.
She pulled a level-62 Onyxian Warder back toward the raid without any trouble.
The mob barely posed a threat.
Progressing through Molten Core had certainly toughened everyone up.
Last week, they'd wiped several times just trying to clear the trash in Onyxia's Lair.
Now those same mobs went down almost effortlessly.
"Are we killing this one?"
When they reached the entrance to Onyxia's chamber, Carlos pointed toward a Warder standing off in the corner.
Gabryell took a look.
It was only level 61.
"Skip it. Everyone gather outside the Princess's room. And nobody goes inside! Whoever wakes her up early loses five DKP."
He stopped near the entrance and marked himself with Circle.
"Stack on me. Don't go past Circle. Get your HP and mana back, then listen up. I'm going over the Onyxia fight."
This time, Gabryell had no intention of holding back information.
He wanted Onyxia dead as soon as possible.
Of course, knowing the strategy didn't automatically mean they'd win. They still needed the execution to back it up.
And a little luck wouldn't hurt.
The biggest concern was Phase 2.
Ideally, Onyxia wouldn't use Deep Breath at all. If she did, once would be manageable.
The Alliance had a major advantage thanks to Dwarf Priests.
As long as one survived, losing a few players to Deep Breath didn't necessarily mean a wipe.
If they could reach Phase 3 with Carlos holding aggro, a surviving Dwarf Priest, and enough healers and DPS to keep going, they could slowly wear Onyxia down.
Provided nobody did something stupid like stumbling into the dragon egg caves, of course.
Onyxia didn't have a Berserk timer, and that was one of her biggest weaknesses.
Once a raid had decent gear from Molten Core, it wouldn't even need forty players to beat her.
A well-equipped group of twenty-five could get the job done.
"Onyxia has three phases. Let's start with Phase 1."
Gabryell decided to explain each phase separately.
He wasn't about to let them repeat last week's embarrassment of wiping before they even got through the opening phase.
"Phase 1 is the easy part. Carlos pulls the Princess, turns her around, and drags her toward the back of the room, where her tail is pointing now. Tank her against the wall so the knockback doesn't send you flying."
Carlos had already practiced positioning Onyxia, so Gabryell wasn't particularly worried about him.
"We'll split the raid like we did against Shazzrah. Groups 1, 3, and 7 on the left. Groups 2, 4, and 8 on the right."
"Odd groups left, even groups right. We attack from both sides."
Then his tone grew more serious.
"When we move in, don't stand around staring at her. Follow the raid and get into position."
"And whatever you do, stay away from her head. If you run out in front of the Princess, she'll turn and breathe fire all over you."
"One idiot in the wrong spot and the whole raid wipes."
Gabryell paused.
"And if somebody charges ahead and gets everyone killed, I'm replacing them on the spot."
There was always that one player who rushed into a fight as though getting killed first was some kind of achievement.
The tank hadn't even established aggro, and the idiot was already charging straight at the boss.
One breath later, half the raid was dead.
Fearless didn't have room for players like that.
Anyone who caused a wipe through sheer stupidity could expect to spend the rest of the night on the bench.
"Don't fall too far behind, either," Gabryell continued. "I don't want anyone hanging around her tail."
"If you get tail-swiped into the egg caves, you're getting benched too."
"Once Carlos has her positioned, don't start unloading immediately. Her knockback can mess with his threat. Give him time to build a solid aggro lead."
He intended to handle the first phase as safely as possible.
"When I call for DPS, casters use your wands. Physical DPS, stick to auto-attacks."
"We're not trying to burn her in Phase 1. I don't want anyone wasting all their mana or energy."
He added one final reminder.
"And seriously, stay beside her. Not in front, not behind. Beside her belly."
"If you get knocked into the egg caves because you were standing next to her tail, you know what's coming."
"I've got people waiting outside who'd love to take your raid spot."
Gabryell genuinely couldn't understand how anyone managed to get knocked into the egg caves during such a straightforward phase.
Phase 3 was different.
Once Onyxia landed, threat could become a mess. If she started running around unpredictably, someone might get caught by a tail swipe before they had time to react.
At least that would be understandable.
That was why he hadn't threatened to bench anyone for making the same mistake during Phase 3.
"In short, Phase 1 is about one thing: keeping everything under control."
"Play it safe. Bring her down to 65% and let her take off. That's when Phase 2 starts."
Simple enough.
The real trouble came afterward.
"Now, Phase 2."
"Once the Princess takes off, David and Night, you're on whelp duty. David, take the left egg cave. Night, take the right."
"David, grab the whelps coming from the left. Night, you handle the ones from the right."
"Mages from the odd groups go with David. Mages from the even groups go with Night."
"Let the tanks gather the whelps before you AoE them down."
That would take care of the adds.
The rest of the raid had another job.
"Everyone else, stay close to Onyxia throughout the phase. Wherever she flies, follow her. Don't fall too far behind."
Gabryell had his reasons for that order.
Deep Breath was the most unpredictable part of the encounter, and he'd spent plenty of time thinking about how to reduce the risk.
His theory was simple.
If the raid stayed within reach, Onyxia would have more opportunities to cast Fireball. And if she spent more time casting Fireball, perhaps she'd have fewer chances to choose Deep Breath instead.
But if players kept moving too far away, he believed she'd be forced to select other abilities more often.
Suppose she normally made ten such ability checks during Phase 2.
If the raid's positioning caused her to make twenty instead, wouldn't that give Deep Breath more chances to come up?
It wasn't something Gabryell could prove beyond doubt.
And he knew Blizzard's blue posts didn't necessarily support that theory.
Even so, he intended to follow the approach he remembered from some of the most successful early raiding groups.
"During Phase 2, nobody uses abilities to drop threat."
"Rogues, no Vanish. Priests, no Fade. Mages, no Ice Block. Hunters, no Feign Death. Paladins, no Divine Shield."
"Stay close to the Princess and take the Fireballs."
Some players would probably call that ridiculous.
Others might dismiss the whole thing as nothing but gamer superstition.
Gabryell knew the argument.
Deep Breath is random. Stop pretending you've figured out some secret trick.
Maybe they had a point.
But he couldn't ignore what he'd seen in his previous life.
The early guilds he remembered studying had used variations of the same approach. Even groups chasing fast Onyxia kills had relied on similar positioning and threat discipline.
Were all those experienced players really clueless?
Had they somehow managed to succeed while knowing absolutely nothing about the fight?
Gabryell didn't believe that.
Those groups had spent countless attempts learning what worked and what got people killed.
Even if they couldn't explain every detail of the underlying mechanics, their experience had value.
And one of the guilds he'd always associated with the earliest Onyxia victories was Ruined.
For years, Ruined had been widely credited with the original world-first kill.
In the old timeline, Onyxia had remained undefeated for sixty-nine days after World of Warcraft launched.
Sixty-nine days.
That was how long it had taken before players finally brought the Black Dragon Princess down.
Gabryell wasn't going to throw away the lessons of those early raids just because someone on a forum claimed to have a better theory.
There was a difference between questioning a strategy and assuming every experienced player in the world was an idiot.
When enough successful guilds settled on a particular approach, there was usually something worth learning from it.
Maybe it wasn't perfect.
Maybe someone would eventually discover a better way.
But until then, Gabryell would rather use a method with a history of success than gamble forty players' time on somebody's untested theory.
He'd seen what happened to stubborn raiders who insisted on doing everything their own way.
Usually, they got chewed out by their raid leader.
Then they got kicked.
As far as Gabryell was concerned, the choice was obvious.
Fearless was still learning. There was no reason to make the fight harder than it needed to be.
If the strategy remembered from those early world-first raids could help them kill Onyxia, why not use it?
Just to prove he was smarter than everyone else?
What a waste of time.