The difficulty of running Maraudon at level 45 came from the dungeon's level range. The lowest-level boss was Lord Vyletongue on the purple side, and even he was level 47.
Every other boss was level 48 or higher. Once you reached Earth Song Falls, the trash jumped another level, the bosses reached level 50, and the final boss, Princess Theradras, was level 51.
Against level 45 players, bosses that high could easily land crushing blows. Even a well-geared tank could get deleted if the hits lined up badly. That was why, whether in closed beta or open beta, players running Maraudon at level 45 usually came in with a ten-man group.
To put it bluntly, five level 45 players walking into Maraudon at this stage were just signing up for a corpse run.
"For bosses with adds, Carlos takes the boss, Quell picks up the adds. Everyone else, handle your jobs like usual."
In Maraudon, a lot of elite mobs came paired with normal trash, so assigning tanks ahead of time kept the pulls from getting messy.
"Clear as we go."
Maraudon's trash mobs were some of the blindest mobs in the game, but that only applied when you came back at level 60. Against level 45 players, their aggro radius was perfectly healthy.
"Carlos, grab the slime. Quell, pick up the two patrolling lashers. Pull them together and burn them down."
With ten people fighting level 46 trash, there was no need to play too carefully. The two tanks could stack the mobs together and let everyone AoE.
Two Mages plus a Warlock meant Blizzard and Rain of Fire everywhere. The AoE felt great.
"Melee, swap to the lashers."
The lashers had low health and low armor, so melee could kill them quickly.
"As long as the healers have mana, keep pulling. Let's keep the pace up."
With ten people, there was no reason to crawl through the orange-side trash. They could bulldoze straight through.
They pushed all the way to Poison Falls and reached Noxxion, the first boss on the orange side. It was a level 48 elite boss.
Bosses could not be handled like trash. They needed actual tactics.
"At certain health thresholds, this boss splits and summons a bunch of small Water Elementals. Quell, drop Consecration when they spawn, and we'll AoE them down."
A level 48 boss's AoE hurt level 45 players quite a bit, so the main point of this fight was keeping the group topped. Luckily, they had two healers, so it should not be a major problem.
"Pulling?" Carlos asked.
"Go."
His Defense was decent, so Noxxion should not crush him too badly.
He body-pulled the boss, dragged it straight out of the water, and brought it onto land.
"Lunatori, prioritize poison dispels. If the stacks get too high, he won't be able to hold through it."
The poison was nasty. Even level 60 characters could get overwhelmed if the stacks climbed too high. If it built up on the tank, his health would start spiking dangerously, and one bad moment could kill him.
As long as the poison was dispelled properly, Noxxion was not too threatening. Its AoE damage was not enough to one-shot the rest of the group.
At 50% health, it split and summoned a swarm of small Water Elementals.
They hit lightly and had low health, so they were easy to AoE down.
Still, the combination of splitting and poison made Noxxion hard for a single level 60 player to solo. Even two players could wipe if they coordinated poorly. That was why level 60 players doing the Scepter of Celebras quest usually came as a pair of Mages.
"Every time it splits, its damage goes up. Watch the tank's health."
The boss was clearly hitting harder now. Each swing took nearly a third of Carlos's health. Without Lunatori constantly cleansing poison, one hit would have dropped him below half.
Noxxion split twice. At 20%, it split again, and its damage rose once more. Most level 60 players trying to solo it would make it this far and then die.
"Keep him topped. Don't worry about overhealing here. Quell, build second threat in case he gets one-shot."
Caution was better than wiping. Since they had two tanks, they needed to use both properly.
"This boss hits like a truck," Carlos said.
The last boss he had met that hit this hard was Galgann Firehammer in Uldaman.
"That's the downside of fighting above your level. The bigger the gap, the harder the hits feel."
And this was only the start. From Earth Song Falls onward, Tinkerer Gizlock and Rotgrip were both level 50 elite bosses. Gizlock was still manageable, but Rotgrip's damage was terrifying. If one of its abilities crit, deleting a level 45 tank was completely possible.
Of course, the level 51 Princess Theradras was even stronger, but Gabryell was not too worried about her. If everything went wrong, as long as he survived, he could still use the small rock on the right side of the pool and kite Princess with Fire Blast until she died.
This was still the original, unpatched version. The little rock used to cheese Princess had not been fixed yet.
In the final 20%, the tank's health started spiking up and down hard. Thankfully, they had two healers. Otherwise, he might really have dropped.
"ServerHeals is actually good."
After watching him for a while, Gabryell realized ServerHeals had solid mechanics. More accurately, his awareness was excellent. Before every boss swing, he pre-cast Heal. The moment the attack landed, his cast finished and pulled the tank's health back into the safe zone.
Pre-casting Heal was a technique every good healer had to master, especially during progression, when fights lasted longer. Healers who could not pre-cast either wasted mana with overhealing or reacted too late and let people die.
"Still has 25% mana. Not bad."
Gabryell had to give ServerHeals credit. His mana control was excellent, and healing from him felt very safe.
"Dead!"
Carlos shouted, and Noxxion collapsed.
"Lunatori, loot!"
Hugo called out quickly, afraid someone else might touch the boss corpse first.
Although DeathScum was running with Gabryell's team for the first time, he already knew about Lunatori's loot luck and wisely stayed away from the corpse.
Lunatori went up and looted.
Heart of Noxxion (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Trinket
+10 Nature Resistance
Requires Level 46
Use: Removes 1 poison effect. (5 min cooldown)
A Nature Resistance trinket was not very useful right now, but once Ahn'Qiraj opened, it could be used to stack Nature Resistance.
"Everyone roll."
The drop rate for this trinket was not especially low. If they needed Nature Resistance later, they could come back and farm it.
Right now, aside from Gabryell, who already had both trinket slots filled, everyone else either had one trinket or none. Heart of Noxxion was better than an empty slot.
"Hahaha, I won the roll."
Carlos had a rare burst of good luck and won Heart of Noxxion.
That result worked out well. In terms of priority, the tank was the best fit for it, followed by Rogues. When Ahn'Qiraj opened, it could help stack Nature Resistance.
Since it went to Carlos, everyone was happy, and there was no need to come back specifically to farm it later.
That said, Maraudon had plenty of Nature Resistance gear. Melee players who needed to stack Nature Resistance later could always form small groups and farm it.
"Why does it require level 46?" Carlos sounded miserable. He could not equip it yet.
Gabryell said, "Aside from Lord Vyletongue's level 47 drops, most Maraudon boss loot requires level 46 or higher. You'll have to wait until official launch before you can equip it."
"What a pain."
Carlos spoke for everyone. Seeing gear drop and not being able to equip it was frustrating as hell.
"Everyone eat and drink fast. We're moving to the next boss."
Gabryell estimated that Madhouse, which had entered a minute before them, should have killed Noxxion around the same time. He had no idea how far the other guilds had progressed, though. Time was tight. If they wanted the first clear and wanted to win this race, they had to keep pushing.