Their luck finally turned bad when they killed Ambassador Flamelash.
He did not drop Burst of Knowledge. He did not drop Circle of Flame either, whose drop rate felt more like a rumor than an actual number.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
Hugo stared at the two-handed polearm, Flame Wrath. It had no useful stats for him, and its effect was bizarre.
Chance on hit: Envelops the caster in a Fire shield for 15 seconds and shoots a ring of fire, dealing 130 to 171 Fire damage to all nearby enemies.
No useful Hunter stats, and the effect was pure weird Vanilla itemization.
For Hugo, it was basically vendor trash.
Gabryell immediately thought of another "meme weapon" with no useful Hunter stats.
"It's fine," he said. "Use it when you feel like playing melee Hunter. Look at that proc. Maybe if you stand in the mobs long enough, you'll tank better than Carlos."
A melee Hunter.
Truly one of Vanilla's most terrifying life-forms.
The kind of Hunter who thought Raptor Strike made him an off-tank, chugged pots when no one healed him, bandaged in the middle of chaos, and somehow survived a full minute with half the room beating on him.
After Ambassador Flamelash went down, Gabryell had no real interest in The Seven waiting behind him.
"Forget it. We're doing the lava run."
He led everyone back toward the rear exit of the Grim Guzzler.
"Jump down. Clear the two elementals below first, then we'll kill Incendius."
With that, Gabryell jumped first and landed at the entrance to Lord Incendius's platform.
The others followed and killed the two Fire Elementals below.
"Elemental Fire. Not bad."
One of the elementals dropped Elemental Fire. Along with the two they had gotten earlier, Gabryell could save them for Greater Fire Protection Potions and +7 Fire Resistance cloak enchants.
Once Molten Core progression began, anything related to Fire Resistance would shoot up in price. He had been deliberately stockpiling materials all along, waiting to use them once progression started.
They were doing the lava run for the Molten Core attunement and the princess chain. Lord Incendius was technically optional, but since the boss was right there, they might as well kill him.
The fight was casual.
The loot was not.
Emberplate Armguards
Rare
Binds when picked up
Wrist
Plate
261 Armor
+10 Fire Resistance
Durability 45 / 45
Requires Level 52
The random enchant rolled +10 Strength and +9 Stamina.
"Holy crap," Carlos said. "Those are actual Fire Resistance tank bracers."
After Gabryell's earlier explanation, Carlos already understood how important Fire Resistance was.
Sure enough, their bad luck earlier had been saving itself for this one good roll.
"That's a great drop," Gabryell said. "Incendius can drop plate, mail, leather, or cloth bracers, and each one can roll a bunch of different enchants. Getting plate with Strength and Stamina is RNG stacked on top of RNG."
Gabryell had once farmed Flameweave Cuffs of Shadow Wrath on a Shadow Priest.
It had nearly driven him insane.
He had killed Incendius over a hundred times before finally getting the roll he wanted.
"Follow me down."
Doing the lava run for Molten Core attunement let them skip The Seven entirely.
"Straight into the lava?" Hugo asked.
"Yes."
"Are we not going to burn to death down there?" Hugo still had trauma from dying in lava earlier.
"Follow me," Gabryell said. "You won't die."
He jumped first, and everyone else followed.
"Hug the wall."
There were small ledges and safe edges along the side. If they stayed close to the wall, they could avoid taking too much lava damage.
They cleared two patrolling Fire Elementals along the way, then Gabryell led everyone to a small island guarded by four more elementals.
"Luna, HoTs on everyone. Regrowth, Rejuvenation, whatever you've got. Don't sit in the lava too long."
The stretch of lava between their current position and the next island was fairly long. Without healing over time, someone could easily die halfway across.
Gabryell led the way. It was less swimming and more hopping forward through the lava. Constant jumping reduced the number of damage ticks he took, keeping him alive until he reached the other side.
"Holy crap, Igor," Carlos said. "You're a disgrace to Paladins."
Igor's jumping rhythm was so bad that his health dropped like a rock. Halfway across, he actually had to use Divine Shield, leaving Carlos completely stunned.
Igor was shameless. "Bubble doesn't earn interest sitting unused. Pop it early, get the cooldown back early."
Gabryell reached the shore and stopped near the edge.
"Stand where I'm standing. Don't move too far forward and body-pull the mobs."
There were four level 56 Fire Elementals on the island. If they pulled everything before recovering, things could get messy.
Lunatori was the second to reach shore and immediately started healing the others behind her.
Everyone made it across safely.
"Eat and drink," Gabryell said. "Hugo, once we're ready, shoot the front elemental and pull it back."
The four elementals on the island could actually be split. Attacking the closest one would at most pull the one beside it. The other two would not come.
After everyone recovered, Hugo shot the closest elemental, and the two nearest ones came over together.
"Carlos, grab them. Don't move up."
Gabryell reminded him again.
With two warnings in place, everyone played cautiously and killed the first two elementals without trouble.
Once they were dead, the rest was easy. Carlos charged in and took care of the remaining pair.
After clearing the island, they were much closer to the opposite shore, greatly reducing the chance of anyone dying during the next lava jump.
"Across we go."
Gabryell jumped back into the lava and hopped his way to the other side.
By this point, everyone had gotten used to the rhythm. They followed smoothly and reached the end of the lava route without any more disasters.
"When we go up, Carlos leads. We're clearing across the bridge."
The Molten Core attunement quest was more important than rescuing Moira, so it naturally came first.
Carlos charged ahead.
"Got it."
The bridge had three packs of Fire Elementals, three per pack. Without a Warlock to Banish them, it was not exactly free. Fortunately, Gabryell's party was high-level enough to handle it cleanly.
After fighting their way across, they finally arrived at the entrance to Molten Core, hidden deep inside Blackrock Depths.
"Wait," Carlos said. "Why is there another instance in here?"
He stared at the raid entrance. "This is a dungeon inside a dungeon. What is this, Russian nesting dolls?"
"Inside is Molten Core," Gabryell said. "The first 40-player raid we're going to face."
Hugo was surprised. "So if we go in now, we're in Molten Core?"
"Yes, but don't go in yet."
Gabryell pointed to the ore-like fragment beside the entrance.
"See that on the left? Loot it. That's the Core Fragment. Once we turn the quest in, we'll be attuned."
Lunatori asked the question every new player would ask.
"Guild Leader, when we raid Molten Core later, do we have to clear BRD every time and enter from here?"
"No," Gabryell said. "Once the quest is done, we can talk to Lothos Riftwaker, the NPC who gave us the quest. He'll teleport us straight into Molten Core."
There was also another way to enter. Players could jump down from the left side of Lothos Riftwaker and reach the entrance directly.
If enemy players controlled Blackrock Mountain and blocked the path to Lothos, they could jump into the lava from the Burning Steppes side, swim over to the fire near him, and enter that way too.
Of course, they had to judge the distance properly.
Jump too far, and they would be boiled alive in the lava.
Gabryell walked over and looted the Core Fragment.
The others followed and did the same.
Then he saw Hugo and Igor edging toward the Molten Core entrance.
He barked immediately, "Don't zone in, you clowns. If you go in and come back out, you'll pop out by Lothos. The trash outside has probably respawned, and we don't have a Warlock to summon you back. Don't be those guys."
If they really zoned in, they would screw everyone over.
Entering Molten Core and then leaving would place them beside Lothos Riftwaker outside BRD.
Since they had skipped The Seven, Gabryell had no easy way to go out and pick them up. He would have to take over manually, use the East Garrison window-jump combat drop to run back to Lord Incendius, then do the lava route all over again.
The time wasted going back and forth would be enough to finish the princess chain.