It was Warquell's first time main-tanking a dungeon, and he was both nervous and excited. He was grateful he had joined Fearless, grateful the guild leader trusted him, and grateful he finally got to play the Protection Paladin he had always dreamed of.
For this run, he had specifically respecced Protection and taken a blue BoE shield out of his bank.
The most important thing in dungeons was attitude. If you did not put in effort and only wanted to coast, you would never perform well.
Gabryell was very satisfied with Warquell's attitude. No matter how good he was as a first-time Protection Paladin tank, his dedication alone made him worth training.
"Warquell, you pick up the Shadowcaster. Think you can handle it?"
After entering Zul'Farrak, Gabryell assigned roles in front of the first pack.
Egides could handle two Blood Drinkers by himself without issue. With two main tanks, two healers, and four DPS, there was no need to sheep three level 45 mobs.
Warquell said, "No problem."
He had to believe in himself first before others could trust him to fill the main tank role and protect his teammates with the shield in his hand.
"Pull."
Gabryell had no intention of having everyone drop combat and rush straight to the boss. With eight people running Zul'Farrak, there was no need for much strategy before the bosses. They could just push straight through.
The eight-person team was:
Main tanks: Egides, Warquell.
Healers: Lunatori, StyleOverStats.
DPS: Ogabs, BentArrow, Grada, and Coldhands.
For Zul'Farrak, the more Mages, the better. Two Mages in an eight-person group were enough for AoE. When necessary, a Retribution Paladin like Grada could also drop Consecration and contribute a little AoE damage.
"Watch the Witch Doctor's heals. Interrupt them first. If a totem drops, swap to it immediately."
The biggest threat among the trash mobs was not the Shadow Hunter that could turn players into frogs, but the Sandfury Witch Doctor. A Paladin could dispel Polymorph, but if the Witch Doctor's Flash Heal was not interrupted properly, it would drag the fight out.
When Gabryell solo-farmed the Zul'Farrak graveyard, the most annoying patrol mobs were Sandfury Witch Doctors and Shadow Hunters. The former required Counterspell; the latter sometimes required Ice Block.
"Coldhands, see the two rocks on the left? Hiding between them can reset combat."
When they reached the first reset spot, Gabryell whispered Coldhands. He had bought the Tiny Crimson Whelpling and Hyacinth Macaw from him for 150 gold, which made him feel a little guilty, so he decided to give him some pointers and teach him how to solo-farm the Zul'Farrak graveyard.
Only pointers, though. He would not personally walk him through it. Whether Coldhands could learn would depend on his own understanding.
Coldhands replied with a question mark, clearly confused.
Gabryell said, "Remember every word I whisper you. Once we reach the graveyard area, you'll understand."
Coldhands said, "Got it, Leader. I'll remember every word."
Gabryell warned him, "Don't leak this. This is the foundation of a Mage's livelihood."
Now was not the time to spread it. He chose to trust Coldhands' character. If Coldhands really exposed the solo-farming method, then Gabryell would at least learn what kind of person he was. That trade would not be a loss either.
"I understand. Don't worry, Leader."
Seeing how serious Gabryell was, Coldhands knew the guild leader was about to teach him something powerful.
Solo-farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard at level 42, with low Defense Skill and a level disadvantage, made it very easy to get knocked off your mount. At level 45, the chance dropped greatly. As long as Coldhands understood the method, he would become the next Mage who never wanted to leave the Zul'Farrak graveyard.
"I got turned into a frog."
Egides had been polymorphed by a Shadow Hunter.
The mob's Polymorph was shameless. Taking damage did not break the transformation, and without a teammate to dispel it, you could only stand there and get beaten. That was why Ogabs sometimes had to use Ice Block when soloing Shadow Hunters: specifically to break the Polymorph.
"Grada, you useless healer, dispel me already."
Carlos complained from beside him. Igor had played Retribution for too long, and his healing skill was barely passable. Several times, he had actually tried to run up and swing his one-handed mace.
Grada dispelled Egides. "Relax. Let Grada's Holy Light bless your ass."
He was using one-click dispel.
"This addon is actually really good. Fast, convenient, and powerful," Igor praised.
Gabryell's addon had gone online yesterday and was now pinned in the most eye-catching spot on the Azeroth National Geographic Forum's front page. In one day, downloads had shot up rapidly, and Warcraft players who liked trying new things had become its first users.
With the data Blizzard provided, he had already entered most low-level dungeon data except Zul'Farrak and Maraudon, and the addon now had an early version of raid warnings and other functions. As for quests, everything before level 45 had also been added. As long as players downloaded the addon, their questing efficiency would improve greatly.
To Warcraft players right now, the addon felt almost like a cheat. The longer people used it, the more dependent on it they would become, eventually turning into loyal users. The number of registered accounts would keep increasing.
Lunatori said, "Exactly! The Bigfoot addon from the Azeroth National Geographic Forum is amazing. Now I launch the game through the addon every time I log in."
Thanks to Gabryell's deliberate promotion, around 90% of Fearless players had downloaded the addon, making it the guild with the highest addon adoption rate in the game.
The arrival of addons marked a new era, and Gabryell was the one leading it.
Gabryell smiled without saying anything. Aside from his three roommates, no one knew the addon had been developed by him, let alone that the Azeroth National Geographic Forum and the voice-chat platform had also come from their group.
"Damn frog-spamming bastard."
Back in human form, Egides immediately Shield Bashed the Shadow Hunter, afraid it would cast Polymorph again.
When they reached the second reset spot, Gabryell whispered Coldhands again.
"Between the two rocks on the left. That can also reset combat."
"I've got it," Coldhands replied. He was a humble and eager student.
Since they did not need experience, they skipped whatever mobs they could. The group advanced quickly and soon reached the scarab area.
"Kill Theka first, then the scarabs. Don't use AoE on Theka."
Gabryell was afraid they might accidentally pull Theka while clearing the scarabs.
Theka was not really a boss, just a quest mob. He was weak and went down quickly without putting up much resistance.
"Anyone with the quest, loot him."
He dropped the First Mosh'aru Tablet.
"I don't have it."
"Me neither."
There were eight people in the group, and none of them had picked up the quest. Gabryell had not done it either. This was part of a quest chain. The first step started in Gadgetzan, then required going to Feralas to capture three Screecher spirits. Getting the tablet was the second step, and the final part required going to the temple to fight the Avatar of Hakkar.
"What a cheapskate. Not even a piece of junk," Igor complained, looking at the silver coins he received.
Theka did not drop gear. If no one had the quest, he only dropped money. If not for the scarabs, Gabryell really would not have bothered wasting time on him.
With Theka no longer patrolling around, they could finally clear the scarabs.
"Quell, you main tank here. Go to the densest spot and drop Consecration to gather them up. Coldhands and I will AoE them down."
Ogabs could easily handle all the scarabs by himself, but that required pulling them to the graveyard area. With two Mages now, they could directly use max-rank Blizzard and clear them very quickly.
Warquell moved to the area with the most scarabs and dropped Consecration in place. It immediately aggroed all the nearby scarabs, and they swarmed him.
A Paladin's durability was not much worse than a Warrior's. The main reason they sat on the bench in the level 60 era came down to three major flaws.
First, they had no single-target taunt. Many bosses in vanilla required frequent tank swaps, which made threat transitions hard to handle.
Second, they did not have enough mana. A level 60 Protection Paladin needed to use a lot of abilities to generate stable threat and might even need a Druid to Innervate them just to maintain the rotation. That was not realistic.
Third, gear. Without a proper tier set supporting them, they could only collect scattered pieces, which was extremely difficult. And if they forced together defensive gear, they lost mana. If they wanted mana, they lost tankiness. In the end, unless the raid leader was a close friend, they would rather bring a Bear Druid than a Protection Paladin.
That was why Warquell was lucky. He had met a guild leader who knew Protection Paladins would rise in later versions and could slowly train his tanking awareness.
They pulled half the scarabs over at once. Ogabs used Frost Nova, Coldhands dropped Blizzard, then Ogabs backed away, cast Flamestrike, controlled the distance, and used Arcane Explosion.
"Mages are seriously brutal."
Watching two Mages clear a huge pack of scarabs made the classes without AoE jealous.
"Keep going."
After eating and drinking, Gabryell had Warquell pull the other half over.
If the scarabs had not been yellow-name mobs, Ogabs would have shown off with a flashy mounted pull, then used Ice Block and let Coldhands pick up threat with Blizzard.
They repeated the method and cleared out all the scarabs.
Loot was set to free-for-all. With so many scarab corpses, there was no way they could make Lunatori loot them all alone, so everyone clicked around randomly.
"Ah, a purple item dropped!"
Someone suddenly cried out. No one knew who had looted a purple BoE from a scarab.
People always said the scarabs in Zul'Farrak had a higher chance to drop purple items. It was exactly for that chance that Gabryell had deliberately cleared all the scarabs they could have skipped.
The scarabs had dropped a purple item.
Gabryell's heart tightened. There were plenty of purple BoEs on the scarab drop table, and the most valuable was undoubtedly Edgemaster's Handguards. With Luna here, could it really be that?
He eagerly looked at the Need window that popped up.
Please, RNG gods. Let it be Edgemaster's Handguards.