Celebras the Cursed was located where Poison Falls met Earth Song Falls. He was the final boss for the Scepter of Celebras quest chain, but unfortunately, Gabryell was in a raid group, so he could not complete it.
"Hard to believe this lost soul wandering through Maraudon's poisoned waters is the grandson of Cenarius and the great-grandson of Elune."
Gabryell looked at Celebras the Cursed and sighed.
Princess Theradras had really done a number on that family. She had trapped the spirit of Zaetar, a Keeper of the Grove and son of Cenarius, deep within Maraudon.
No wonder players would later spend years farming her over and over. Anyone willing to put up with Princess Theradras that many times was usually chasing one thing: a rare drop worth a fortune.
"Lunatori, I'm counting on you."
Gabryell did not want to grind endlessly. He wanted a miracle: Blade of Eternal Darkness on the first kill.
A level 49 boss with three adds. This would not be easy.
"Carlos, take the boss. Quell, pick up the three treants. Don't kill them. As long as Celebras is alive, he'll keep resummoning them, so killing them just wastes DPS."
Gabryell assigned the roles. "Healers, keep dispels ready. If there's a debuff you can remove, remove it immediately."
"DPS, go all out. Interrupt every cast you can."
They were four levels below the boss, so their hit chance would be awful, but with six DPS focusing fire, they could still kill it.
"Pulling. Keep me up!"
Carlos charged in.
Warquell was already used to his aggressive style and followed right after him, quickly building threat on the three adds. In truth, the treants did not have much health, barely over a thousand each. By the time the boss died, he could probably AoE them down himself.
"What a disgrace to Elune and Cenarius," Gabryell thought as he cast Frostbolt.
Azeroth really did get worse with every generation. In the end, the old guard still had to carry everything.
"I got the interrupt."
After getting three pieces of gear, DeathScum was especially proactive and landed the first interrupt.
"Good. Don't let him cast. His melee hits aren't that scary."
"Damn it, missed again. Does this boss dodge everything?" Hugo's Aimed Shot hit nothing.
"Get used to it," Gabryell said. "Once the level gap is more than three, hit chance starts feeling awful. The bigger the gap, the worse it gets. At some point, nine out of ten abilities can miss."
Nine out of ten abilities could miss, but numbers still mattered. There had once been bored players who made over a hundred level-one alts to kill level-60 players. With instant resurrection, they had actually overwhelmed an entire party of level-60s through sheer bodies.
"Interrupted," Coldhands said.
"Good. I'll take the next one."
As long as they rotated interrupts and kept Celebras from casting, the fight was not too difficult.
"Almost dead. Push," Carlos called.
The DPS went all in and burned through the final 20%, killing Celebras.
"Switch to the adds. Actually—never mind. Nice work, Quell."
Gabryell had just been about to call for a swap when he turned and saw that Warquell had already killed all three treants by himself.
"Please don't be Rogue gear again."
If no Retribution Paladin gear dropped soon, Igor was going to lose it. Without upgrades, how was he supposed to cover for his class's weak DPS and compete with everyone else?
Unfortunately, disappointment was inevitable. Celebras did not drop Retribution gear at all. Its most valuable item was probably the Nature Resistance cloak.
Grovekeeper's Drape (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Back
37 Armor
+12 Stamina
+10 Nature Resistance
Requires Level 47
Lunatori lived up to expectations and looted the Nature Resistance cloak.
"Both tanks roll."
For now, this cloak mainly served as a Stamina piece, making it best for tanks. No one else fought for it. After all, the stronger the tanks were, the more freely everyone else could DPS.
36 to 24. Neither roll was impressive, but Carlos won with a 36.
"Madhouse is at the same point as us. They just killed Celebras too."
Desert shared the latest information he had picked up. "Freedom wiped once on Noxxion because their tank died, but they still killed it. They're a little ahead now and already reached Earth Song Falls."
"Hallelujah is about even with us."
"Westfall isn't going smoothly. They weren't in closed beta and actually wiped on Lord Vyletongue. They didn't know about the two stealthed satyrs next to the boss and pulled them together with the two at the entrance."
Wiping in Maraudon was miserable. You had to run back from the Kodo Graveyard, which took three or four minutes, then re-enter the dungeon and run all the way back to the boss.
And if you entered through the orange side and had to run back to Lord Vyletongue, that was a long trip. Taking the purple entrance was even worse, with a mountain of trash waiting in the way.
Westfall had already wiped once, so their chance of competing was basically gone.
"We need to speed up."
Gabryell thought for a moment, then opened trade with DesertWanderer and handed him a gear set made from the three Dreamweave pieces in his bag plus some extra Shadoweave gear.
Desert sent a question mark.
"For the guild," Gabryell said.
He stopped being polite and accepted the gear. "Thanks!."
Just looking at the stats, he knew how valuable it was. This set was worth at least two or three hundred gold.
Gabryell then traded another Dreamweave set to Coldhands. "Take it. Push your DPS."
Coldhands accepted immediately. "Got it."
With the team's other two caster DPS getting major upgrades, their clear speed should improve noticeably.
Compared to winning the race against Madhouse, a few hundred gold was nothing. If Gabryell was not willing to spend even that much, how was he supposed to build Fearless into the top guild in Warcraft?
"David, how's your progress?" he asked.
David immediately replied, "Just killed Lord Vyletongue."
Their progress was faster than expected. Not bad. At least they had not wiped like Westfall.
"Freedom has gotten a lot stronger."
Freedom's performance this time surprised Gabryell. Although they had lost a tank once, that mistake did not erase their overall strength. Their progress was currently the fastest among all the guilds.
"The real race starts now."
After Earth Song Falls came the real Maraudon. The dungeon was divided into outer and inner sections, and the inner section was a full tier harder. Inner Maraudon still had four bosses: three level 50 bosses and one level 51 final boss. Every single one could potentially delete a level 45 tank.
The real test had only just begun, and no one knew who would come out ahead.
"Don't waste time. Catch up to Freedom. If we can't even beat them, we're the joke."
The words were blunt, but they worked.
In everyone's eyes, Freedom had always been the punchline. If they could not even beat a punchline, then Fearless would become one instead.
"Go, go, go! Clear Maraudon, and I'll treat everyone to prime rib."
ServerHeals, the whale Priest, spoke up. "I'm serious. One for each of you."
The promise of prime rib worked instantly. Everyone perked up, and the raid's energy shot back up.
Gabryell nodded in satisfaction and led everyone into Inner Maraudon.