It was their first progression run, so nobody had much DKP yet. Even with attendance points and the first-kill points from three bosses, everyone only had 7 DKP, which meant tonight's loot distribution was less of a DKP auction and more of a group roll. Whoever won simply had the item's cost deducted afterward.
That left everything to luck, and nobody had any objections. After all, winning an item would inevitably put someone in negative DKP for the next raid lockout or two. If they wanted another piece of gear, they'd have to wait until everyone else got their turn.
"The greatest tragedy in life is watching the gear you want drop and then losing the roll."
DeathScum got his hopes up for nothing. He lost the roll for the Tier 1 gloves.
The Rogue Tier 1 gloves went to RunForrest. He still wasn't used to keeping Slice and Dice up and played a Combat Rogue with a sword in his main hand and a dagger off-hand, but a win was a win. The other Rogues could only suffer in silence.
As for the Ring of Spell Power, Gabryell sat out the roll. The ring was excellent, just not good enough to justify putting himself deep into negative DKP. With no stats on it, it wasn't ideal for solo farming either, so he would rather save his points for something even better.
"Hahaha, thanks, everyone."
Sometimes fools really did have all the luck. OldSeven actually won the Ring of Spell Power, finally giving him a replacement for his green Band of the Unicorn. He equipped it immediately and started showing off.
"A ring with +33 spell damage. That's the mark of a powerful Mage. I'm officially the second-best Mage in Fearless now."
Everyone who had lost the roll could only seethe.
"Enjoy it while you can. Next time a Mage weapon drops, all you'll be able to do is stare at it. Let's see how happy you are then."
The Ring of Spell Power was best-in-slot, so it carried a much higher DKP cost than a set piece or an ordinary standalone item. The fixed price was 50 DKP, with everyone eligible rolling for it. OldSeven's win dropped his balance straight to negative 43, effectively taking him out of the running for anything else over the next few raid lockouts.
"The DKP system still isn't polished enough. We need to tighten it up."
Gabryell sent Victor a private message. Tonight's progression run had exposed several flaws in the system they had designed earlier, leaving a few things that still needed fixing.
Victor replied, "I'll do my best to get it as close to perfect as possible."
Meticulous by nature, Victor liked everything done properly. He had already spotted several problems with the old system without anyone needing to point them out and had planned to bring them up after the raid. Since Gabryell had mentioned it first, that saved him the trouble.
"I'll put together a better DKP system tomorrow," Gabryell said. "Let's get it cleaned up as soon as possible and start using the revised version next lockout."
Changing the system would create a few complications with the gear they had distributed tonight, but nothing they couldn't sort out afterward.
"Anyone with 300 Enchanting, type 1."
For the +55 Healing formula, he planned to set a fixed cost of 10 DKP and let everyone with 300 Enchanting roll.
Whoever learned it could offer the enchant in the capital and make good money. Right now, it was practically an exclusive service, and with a little advertising, the winner could make a fortune. Anyone determined to squeeze out every last copper didn't even have to tell customers exactly what the materials cost—they could charge well above reagent cost and pocket a hefty profit on every enchant.
There were actually quite a few Enchanters in the raid—eight in total.
After confirming that all eight had 300 Enchanting, he said, "Go ahead and roll. Fixed cost is 10 DKP. Whoever wins learns it, and the guild will cover the mats so you can enchant the weapon of every healer on the first raid team."
At the moment, the +55 Healing enchant wasn't actually that expensive to make. Even a Righteous Orb, the priciest reagent, cost only a little over ten gold. Not many players had learned Enchant Weapon - Crusader or the Truefaith Vestments pattern yet, so demand for the orbs hadn't exploded.
If they wanted better progression, they had to invest in the raid. Stronger healers meant more room for mistakes and faster boss kills.
All eight rolled, and OliveDrab won. As one of Fearless's original members and one of the first ten people to sign the guild charter, he was exactly the kind of veteran Gabryell was glad to see get it.
"OliveDrab, I'll give you the mats once we're back. Help all the healers get their weapons enchanted."
It didn't matter if some of those weapons would eventually be replaced. Even the Priests would be chasing Benediction sooner or later, but an extra +55 healing right now would still make progression easier.
The healers were thrilled and immediately promised to give the raid everything they had.
"Everyone else can relax too," Gabryell added. "If a DPS enchant drops later, the guild will cover that one as well."
The core members of the first raid team had to become the elite of the elite. As long as Fearless kept securing server-first kills, Gabryell wouldn't mind eventually turning the team into something closer to a professional guild like Stars, complete with salaries and bonuses for server-firsts.
Everyone was in a great mood, and the raid was even more fired up to keep pushing MC.
The next boss was Garr. He wasn't far from Gehennas, but plenty of trash stood between them, so they still had some clearing to do.
"Clear the two giants on the left first."
Gabryell didn't want anyone accidentally pulling the pair near the path toward Ragnaros. Leaving them alive would make it far too easy for someone to grab them by mistake, and with the raid's current gear, a pull like that meant an instant wipe with almost no chance of recovery.
Only after the two giants were dead did they continue toward Garr.
"Careful. When you pull the hounds, don't bring the giants with them."
Several Ancient Core Hounds patrolled the area, and one sloppy pull could easily drag the nearby giants into the fight as well. They had to move carefully, taking one group at a time. There was no room for stupid mistakes.
"Damn, this boss is ridiculous. Why does he have so many adds?"
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... Holy shit. Tell me I'm seeing things. There are actually eight of them?"
"You're not seeing things. He really does have eight."
The moment everyone got a clear look at Garr, they froze at the sight of the Firesworn surrounding him. No boss they had encountered since entering MC had come with anything close to that many adds. The others had brought two at most.
Garr had eight.
That was exactly why he was harder than the bosses before him. This wasn't just a strategy check; it was a raid-composition check, and gear could only make up for so much.
Four tanks would be enough. Carlos could hold Garr while the other three handled the Firesworn, but with their current survivability, two adds per tank was the limit. Three would flatten them, and even two carried some risk.
That covered six Firesworn.
Two were still unaccounted for.
That was where the Warlocks came in.
They had Banish.
From Garr onward, Warlocks were basically VIPs in Molten Core. Banish made dangerous elemental pulls and fights like this dramatically easier; without enough Warlocks controlling targets, progression could become miserable fast.
Since this was their first attempt on Garr, Gabryell had no intention of making things harder than necessary. He wanted the safest, simplest strategy available, and for this fight, there was almost no such thing as too many Warlocks. Every extra Banish made Garr easier.
"Are the two Warlocks on the bench here?"
He planned to swap both of them in, bringing the raid up to five Warlocks.
With five Banishes running, David, Nightlord, and Susie would each only have to tank a single Firesworn. The raid could burn David's target first, move to Nightlord's, then finish Susie's while the five Warlocks kept their assigned adds banished the entire time.
Once those three were dead, they could leave the five banished Firesworn alone and switch straight to Garr. Even if the raid ran dry afterward and wiped to the remaining adds, it wouldn't matter as long as Garr went down.
The boss would still be dead.
They could still loot him.
Gabryell looked over the raid composition. All that remained was deciding which two players would move to the bench so the Warlocks could come in.