The Madhouse wiped because of a fatal mistake. They tried to kill Bazil in a cramped room, the healer mispositioned, got hit by a Smoke Bomb, and the MT went down.
They were only level 25, not 60. Trying to solo the Stockade's elite mobs was asking to get destroyed, and even two people against one would still die without a healer.
Bazil was level 28, one level higher than Ogabs, and his damage completely crushed a level 25 Egides. In vanilla World of Warcraft, a three-level gap drastically reduces hit chance. When Grada and BentArrow attacked Bazil, at least one out of every three hits missed.
"Clear the other two rooms first, then we kill Bazil."
Gabryell didn't want to repeat the Madhouse's mistake. Playing it safe was better than doing corpse runs.
They continued pulling mobs into the hallway and killing them steadily. Only after clearing both side rooms did they move on to Bazil.
"Lunatori, you can heal from 30 yards. Stay further back so you don't get hit by Smoke Bomb."
Gabryell didn't plan to fight Bazil inside the room. He would pull him out into the main hall to give everyone space to move.
"Got it." Lunatori stepped back on her own.
"I'm pulling."
With only Bazil left in the room, Carlos body-pulled to establish threat more easily.
"Igor, be ready with Lay on Hands at any time."
Gabryell reminded him. A Paladin's Lay on Hands was a god-tier ability, stronger than a Druid's Nature's Swiftness. With Improved Lay on Hands, it could also grant the target an additional 50% of their gear's armor.
"Don't worry, Egides. I'll keep your ass alive." Igor already saw himself as the Alliance's number one Paladin.
With the Madhouse's painful lesson fresh in mind, the group played very carefully. Bazil's Smoke Bomb only hit Egides and Grada in melee once. The ranged players didn't get hit at all.
No mishaps. They killed Bazil smoothly.
"The Madhouse actually wiped to something this trash?" Igor picked his nose crudely. "I didn't even get to use Lay on Hands."
Carlos said, "Cut it out. Without Gabryell leading, we wouldn't have even reached Bazil. We probably wiped worse than Freedom earlier."
Lunatori naturally went to loot. Bazil had no fixed drops, only a level 20 bind-on-equip green dagger.
This time, they didn't give it to Igor to disenchant. All five rolled, and the winner would sell it at the Auction House. At this stage, green gear above level 20 sold for a good price, especially weapons, which were worth several times more than other slots.
Gabryell got lucky. His 99 beat Igor's 98, leaving Igor fuming.
"Let's head to the left side. Once we clear it, we win this three-guild Stockade race."
After finishing the right side, Gabryell relaxed a bit. The mobs on the left—Defias Prisoners, Inmates, and a few fellow convicts—were easier than the Defias Insurgents and Criminals on the right.
They moved into the left section, advancing step by step using the same strategy.
"Rare elite!!"
Hugo, who was pulling, spotted the Stockade rare, Bruegal Ironknuckle, in the third room.
"Nice luck," Gabryell said.
Bruegal Ironknuckle was the only elite in the Stockade with guaranteed blue drops, with three possible blue items. As a rare elite (silver dragon), you might not even encounter him in five runs if you were unlucky.
He was only level 26 and had no particularly dangerous abilities. Like other dungeon rares, his purpose was basically to hand out gear. A little bonus from Blizzard.
"Blue! It dropped blue gear!"
The loot window popped up, and Hugo was the most excited. At this point, he and Lunatori were practically sharing the same fate. As long as Lunatori opened something good, he'd be thrilled.
Jimmied Handcuffs (Rare)
Bind on Pickup
Wrist Mail Armor
89 Armor
+3 Strength
+7 Stamina
Durability 40 / 40
Requires Level 21
After two days of playing together, the group had developed an unspoken rule for loot distribution. This piece of mail armor was clearly best for Egides, since Warriors could only wear mail before level 40.
Carlos didn't hesitate to take the Jimmied Handcuffs. His Warrior's gear was already top-tier, making him one of the toughest MTs in the game right now.
Gabryell's group had made it this far in the Stockade with ease, and Carlos's Warrior deserved a lot of the credit. In Tichondrius, the only MTs capable of tanking three Stockade elites at once were him and Gorak from the Madhouse.
As for Freedom's NoobSlayer—forget it. At level 24 in full greens, he'd struggle to tank even two mobs, let alone Hamhock at 28 and Bazil Thredd at 29. He'd probably be as squishy as paper.
"There's only one elite quest mob left. Once we kill it, we'll be the first guild to fully clear the Stockade."
Gabryell was confident they were progressing faster than the Madhouse, who had already wiped once. As for Freedom, which had wiped twice, whether they could even clear it was still a question.
"Freedom wiped again."
Right on cue, DesertWanderer reported in guild chat.
"Again?" Carlos asked.
"They wiped on Hamhock. NoobSlayer got killed by trash mobs."
Carlos was speechless. "They're that bad and still trying?"
If they could wipe on Hamhock, Bazil would destroy them even worse.
Freedom's performance was disappointing. A guild at this level posed no threat to Fearless. It seemed their only real rival was the Madhouse.
Gabryell had expected Freedom's wipe. Their strength wasn't actually weak, but they rushed in unprepared, trying to grab the first clear. If they had been patient, leveled up a bit more, and come back tomorrow, they could've cleared it easily.
"Let's keep going."
Victory was right in front of them. Gabryell didn't want to waste time and give the Madhouse a chance to catch up.
Carlos equipped the Jimmied Handcuffs and led the way into the next room, with the others following.
The left and right sections of the Stockade were laid out symmetrically.
When they reached the final large room on the left, they repeated the same method, pulling mobs out of each small room and clearing them one by one.
Finally, they arrived at Dextren Ward's room. A level 26 elite with two adds, just as easy to deal with as Bruegal Ironknuckle.
"Figures. Prisoners are dirt poor. Not a single piece of gear on them, just a few scraps of cloth."
After looting nothing yet again, Hugo couldn't help but complain, "Why would Blizzard make a dungeon like a prison? Why not make a bank with a treasure vault instead?"
The named elites in The Stockade really were poor. The only worthwhile thing here was the decent XP. If you wanted gear, you were better off rushing to level 30 and heading to Gnomeregan or Razorfen Kraul.
Honestly, when Blizzard designed some dungeons, they chose locations pretty poorly. Take Blackfathom Deeps for example. It's the same level as The Stockade, yet almost no one runs it.
Even Night Elf or Horde players would rather travel all the way to Stormwind for The Stockade, or go to Silverpine Forest for Shadowfang Keep, than step foot into Blackfathom Deeps.
Gabryell himself hadn't run Blackfathom Deeps much either. In this life, he didn't want to waste time going to Ashenvale at level 25, so he completely ignored its first kill.
To be precise, first clears of 5-man dungeons didn't interest him that much. He wouldn't go out of his way to chase a specific dungeon's first clear. He only competed for first clears in dungeons he actually wanted to run.
"We've fully cleared it."
After finishing the Stockade, Gabryell didn't forget to message Dreamshade.
Dreamshade replied after a short delay, "Congrats. We still have one last big room to clear."
The Madhouse was highly efficient. If they hadn't wiped once, they would most likely have taken this Stockade first clear.
Of course, it wasn't that their individual skill was much stronger than Gabryell's group. Their party composition was simply more optimized, giving them significantly higher DPS.
Gabryell didn't even need to say anything. Igor and Hugo had already announced in guild chat that they'd secured the server first clear of the Stockade.
"You guys are insane."
"GM's a beast."
"Fearless let's gooo!"
Guild chat blew up. Everyone was hyped to be part of Fearless.
Gabryell opened his friends list and saw Snowlily was still online. She'd been leveling quickly and had already reached level 15.
"Snowlily join the guild server: 1XX.4X6.X89:XX87. It'll make it easier for us to stay in touch."
Snowlily replied immediately, "Okay."
Gabryell asked, "How close are you to 16?"
Snowlily said, "Smooch is helping me with quests. I'm 7% away."
Gabryell asked, "Have you picked up any professions?"
"I learned Tailoring and Herbalism."
That was a great combo for a Priest. With Tailoring, you could craft Truefaith Vestments later, make bags to sell, and produce Mooncloth. Once Dire Maul opened, Priests who didn't want to grind Water Elementals, farm Zevrim Thornhoof, or mine could just pick herbs in the Warpwood Quarter to make money.
Back in 2004, the herb spawn rate there was high. A Priest could casually farm for an hour and make dozens of gold. Easy money.
"I've got some extra cloth," Gabryell said. "I'll mail it to you later. Use it to level Tailoring and make some bags to sell."
"Thanks. I'll mail you the bags when they're done."
Gabryell thought about it. Just giving her the cloth didn't feel quite right.
"Alright, send me the bags when you're done. I'll list them on the Auction House, and we'll split the profit."
Bags were in huge demand right now. The game had only been out for two days, and players already had some gold on hand. Not taking advantage of that would be a waste of his rebirth experience.
After finishing the conversation, Gabryell turned to Hugo.
"Hugo, after we turn in the Stockade quests in Darkshire, I'll take you to grab a pet."
Hugo perked up. "What kind of pet? Is it strong?"
"Very strong. Probably the best rare elite pet you can get right now."
Hugo got excited. "Stronger than that Broken Tooth you mentioned before?"
Gabryell didn't hesitate. "A bit weaker than Broken Tooth."
"Oh." Hugo paused, then asked, "Where is it? What's it called?"
"It wanders along the riverbank in Duskwood. It's called Lupos."
In Gabryell's opinion, Lupos wasn't as good as Broken Tooth. Its Shadow damage could ignore armor, making it especially effective against Warriors, but that didn't last long. Blizzard later patched out the armor-ignoring effect, turning it into an ordinary rare elite pet.
Broken Tooth, on the other hand, was the iconic cat pet of vanilla. With its 1.0 attack speed, it was on another level. It remained one of the best Hunter pets all the way through the entire vanilla era.