Uldaman was packed with clusters of Stonevault troggs. Stonevault Oracles were shamans: they dropped totems, cast Healing Wave, and put up Lightning Shield. Gabryell brought out his long-unused Polymorph and sheeped one, leaving it bleating and wandering in circles off to the side.
Gabryell didn't run Uldaman often, but he still vaguely remembered the layout. They kept left and reached Dig Two. There were three Alliance elite NPCs there. Alliance players could pick up quests from them, while Horde players could kill them for loot.
"Pick up the quests."
Gabryell spoke with Baelog and accepted The Hidden Chamber, then went to the table, opened the chest, and took the Gni'kiv Medallion from inside.
After accepting the quest and getting the medallion, he casually mined the nearby Iron Deposit, then led everyone out of Dig Two. Once outside, they kept left and cleared their way to the Hall of the Keepers.
"This boss is a joke. Just pull."
Gabryell opened by sheeping a Stonevault Oracle, then Carlos Charged Revelosh. It was a shaman-type mob that only used Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt, nothing too threatening. With just over 3,600 HP, it quickly fell under the group's damage.
"I'll loot."
Gabryell wanted the Shaft of Tsol so he could combine it into the Staff of Prehistoria.
Revelosh's Spaulders. Green-quality leather shoulders with a random enchant.
Their luck was decent. It rolled +22 healing.
Gabryell clicked Pass first, and Lunatori took the +healing leather shoulders and equipped them.
"What's this thing for?" Igor asked, referring to the Shaft of Tsol.
Gabryell combined the Shaft of Tsol with the Gni'kiv Medallion, creating the Staff of Prehistoria.
"It summons a big lady."
Igor clicked his tongue. "Is she hot?"
Gabryell laughed. "Absolutely. I'm just worried you can't handle her."
Igor scoffed. "There's no woman Igor can't handle."
Hugo said, "Hey, Smooch is online. Should we have her come to Uldaman too?"
Igor hurriedly said, "We already have five people. Are you trying to kick your Luna out?"
Gabryell glanced at the system messages in chat. Smooch and Snowlily had both logged in.
After thinking for a moment, he didn't whisper them and continued focusing on Uldaman.
When they entered the Map Chamber, Gabryell said, "Clear every mob here. Don't leave a single one."
As he said that, he ran off to mine instead.
A Mithril Deposit. Beautiful.
Once the Stonevault troggs in the Map Chamber were cleared, Igor asked, "Where's your big lady?"
Gabryell went to the Keystone and placed the Staff of Prehistoria inside. The miniature city map on the ground was covered in light, which then shone onto the gate ahead.
"Igor, your date's here," Gabryell shouted the instant the gate opened.
The Titan giantess Ironaya emerged from inside. When Igor saw her, he jumped.
"Holy crap, this lady is huge."
Carlos burst out laughing. "Igor, you couldn't reach her even if you jumped. Climb that pillar over there. Maybe then you'd have a chance."
Hugo laughed too. "Igor, go tame her. I believe in you."
Igor gritted his teeth. "I don't want to tame her. I just want her loot. Hey, big lady, hand over the ancient Titan treasure!"
Carlos stepped up to pick up the boss and clicked his tongue. "This Titan lady has so much HP."
Ironaya's only real trait was her huge health pool. That was a Titan thing. Uldaman's final boss, Archaedas, had a terrifying 29,000-plus HP, and at level 47, he could wipe plenty of level 45 parties.
No matter how much HP she had, it couldn't hold up against a full party. Ironaya lasted a few minutes before finally falling, landing right at Igor's feet.
"Hahaha, Igor, now you can reach her. Go on," Carlos laughed.
Igor backed away in disgust, afraid Ironaya might suddenly fake her death and make him do something weird.
Gabryell didn't loot this time. Lunatori went up.
Stoneweaver Leggings (Rare)
Legs
Cloth
51 Armor
+8 Intellect
+9 Stamina
+15 Spirit
A blue version of level 35 Eagle pants. Gabryell gladly accepted them. With these, he felt even more confident about one-pulling the Zul'Farrak graveyard.
"Follow me inside."
Gabryell entered through the gate, and the prompt appeared: discovered The Hidden Chamber. Quest complete.
"Now we'll help Igor raise Enchanting to Artisan," Gabryell said. The scorpion area ahead was where the Artisan Enchanting trainer was hiding. Seriously, why would a perfectly good Enchanting trainer come adventuring in Uldaman and get herself trapped in a place like this?
The scorpion area had a three-way fork. Gabryell led the group down the right path. There weren't many mobs along the way, and they fought their way to the trainer's camp.
"Where's the Artisan Enchanting trainer?" Igor asked when they reached the end of the path. There was only a tent and a pile of scorpions.
Gabryell said, "Kill all the scorpions and she'll come out."
Igor went up and immediately dropped Consecration. With Divine Shield backing him up, the guy had no fear of death.
After they killed all the scorpions, Annora came out.
Igor raised Enchanting to Artisan, increasing his cap to 300, and learned a few enchants from her while he was at it.
However, most of the strong enchants in World of Warcraft came from formulas. Aside from a handful of useful ones, the enchants learned from NPC trainers were mostly filler.
"There's a chest."
Lunatori, who had been looking around the whole time, called out excitedly, only to deflate two seconds later.
"Why is it locked?"
Nine out of ten chests in Uldaman were locked. Inside them was an extremely tiny chance of getting the most valuable item in the dungeon: the level 39 battleground monster, the slowest weapon in the game—Pendulum of Doom.
World of Warcraft in 2004 was nothing like later WoW Classic. PvP wasn't dead. It would only get hotter and hotter. Otherwise, how could there be the saying, "When Bonereaver's Edge drops, friendship ends"? In WoW Classic, where PvP had already cooled off, that saying turned into, "If you get Bonereaver's Edge, you're our friend."
In 2004, level 39 battlegrounds were extremely popular. Pendulum of Doom's absurdly high damage per swing made it the ultimate weapon in that bracket. Its insanely low drop rate pushed its price sky-high, no worse than Teebu's Blazing Longsword.
And after Uldaman was changed, Pendulum of Doom became unobtainable, turning it into a true collector's relic—a super weapon countless players had only heard of but never seen.
Of course, aside from chests, certain mobs in Uldaman could also drop it. Eight types of trash mobs had it on their loot table, but the drop rate was outrageously low. If you managed to get one during open beta, congratulations, you might as well buy a lottery ticket.
After Igor finished learning Enchanting, Gabryell didn't return the way they came. Instead, he took the small path on the right to fight the Ancient stone steward s.
"Gabryell, where's that ancient Titan treasure you mentioned?"
Igor didn't think the earlier Expert Goldminer's Helmet was worth much.
Gabryell laughed. "The trash mobs in the area ahead can all drop the treasure I mentioned. It's a two-handed axe."
Igor was using a two-handed axe himself. This was his kind of gear, and he immediately perked up.
"How strong is it?"
"One swing, one corpse. Whoever equips it during open beta is basically unbeatable."
"Holy shit, that busted?"
Igor got excited. "How do we get it to drop?"
Gabryell's Mage turned around to face Lunatori's Druid.
"That depends on Luna. She's our only hope now."
Lunatori was their only hope. Even as a reincarnator, Gabryell desperately wanted to see a Pendulum of Doom drop with his own eyes.