"Ogabs, how far have you guys gotten?"
Gabryell had expected Dreamshade to hold out longer before asking about their progress, but when Garr reached 27% health, the whisper finally came.
Instead of answering, he asked, "Have you cleared Lucifron yet?"
If Madhouse had spent the entire day wiping without getting past Lucifron, their morale had to be in pieces by now.
Dreamshade gave a bitter laugh.
"Our best pull only got him to 34%."
Damn.
They really had spent all day wiping on Lucifron.
"Here's some advice. Put together a regular raid team instead of scrambling to fill the roster with different people every time."
Gabryell couldn't just sit there and watch them struggle. They were friends, after all. Giving Dreamshade a little advice wouldn't hurt.
"How do we keep people committed to the roster?" Dreamshade asked.
"Go to the Azeroth National Geographic Forum and find the pinned DKP guide. Read through it and figure out how the system works. You're smart enough to put together a stable raid team once you understand it."
"We called it for today. We'll continue tomorrow," Dreamshade said. "I'll go read it now."
Then, after a brief pause:
"By the way, how far have you guys gotten?"
He still hadn't forgotten.
Gabryell didn't have the heart to crush him.
"We wiped a few times. Still fighting."
Dreamshade didn't press further.
He probably assumed Fearless was still wiping on the first or second boss.
Only later would he find out they had already reached Garr, the fourth boss.
That would probably leave him speechless.
"Keep Immolate dispelled. Lantern, get Banish back up."
The conversation hadn't distracted Gabryell from leading the raid.
"When Garr dies, nobody loots him right away. Melee, stay away from the corpse. Let him sit there for a bit. We'll finish the remaining Firesworn first, then Luna loots."
After all, Garr could drop the right binding.
If they were going to be superstitious about loot, they might as well do it properly.
Later in vanilla, Garr and Baron Geddon would become two of the main reasons people still bothered coming back to MC.
Plenty of players could barely be bothered to go all the way to Rag anymore.
"Holy shit!"
Just before Garr died, Carlos got knocked backward.
He landed at almost the exact moment Garr hit the floor.
Out of habit, Carlos right-clicked the boss.
His character immediately crouched down.
The moment Gabryell heard the shout, he knew something had gone wrong.
Then the gold notification appeared.
It was over.
Of all people, Carlos and his cursed loot luck had gotten to Garr first.
"Carlos... seriously?"
Gabryell nearly choked.
"What was I supposed to do?" Carlos said helplessly. "I landed right when he died. I clicked out of habit and suddenly my character crouched down."
Carlos had probably looted the corpse the instant he landed, then stood back up without even realizing what he had done.
"Go stand by one of the Banished adds nobody's covering. We're pretending the boss hasn't been touched."
At this point, Gabryell had already given up hope of seeing the right binding.
Carlos clearly felt guilty, but the fight still wasn't over.
He obediently moved over to one of the Banished Firesworn that none of the backup tanks were watching.
"Lantern's add first. Don't re-Banish it. Tanks, pick up the other three."
There was no point maintaining Banish on all four anymore.
"Spread them out. Don't blow up the raid."
The melee had joined in on the Firesworn now, so one more warning was necessary.
"When the add hits fifteen percent, melee gets out early. Anyone who gets launched is an idiot."
Rogues had Sprint to bail them out.
Fury Warriors didn't have that luxury.
If they waited too long, they might not make it outside the blast radius in time.
The Priests and Paladins were almost completely dry by now.
Any Shackles still sitting on people would simply have to expire on their own.
"Finish this one, then David's. Susie's after that. Carlos's last."
While continuing to call targets, Gabryell quietly moved toward Garr's corpse.
He was about to cheat his own superstition and sneak a look.
Carlos had already touched the boss anyway.
The curiosity was killing him.
What had Garr dropped?
Carlos had been cursed with terrible loot luck for so long.
Maybe it was finally time for that luck to turn around.
Gabryell wasn't feeling particularly confident, though.
He had a bad feeling about this one.
"Please don't let this kill be a complete bust."
Realistically, it couldn't be.
At this stage of the game, almost anything Garr dropped would be useful to somebody.
Even something like Shadowstrike would have people fighting over it.
Gabryell was simply looking at MC loot through the eyes of someone who knew what would come later.
He had to remember what era this was.
Even the Obsidian Edged Blade was considered incredible gear right now.
He crouched down and checked the loot.
The moment he saw the drops, he relaxed.
Not bad.
Not amazing either, but definitely not terrible.
Aurastone Hammer (Epic)
Bind on Pickup
One-Hand Mace
78–161 Damage
Speed 2.70
(44.6 damage per second)
+10 Intellect
+10 Stamina
Durability 105 / 105
Requires Level 60
Equip: Restores 5 mana per 5 sec.
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 25.
This was a solid MC weapon for Resto Druids and Holy Paladins, especially Druids.
At the very least, it was better than getting stuck with Finkle's Lava Dredger—the ugly two-hander nicknamed the "excavator"—from Majordomo.
Resto Druids could also use the Staff of Dominance, while Holy Paladins liked the Azuresong Mageblade just as much.
The problem was that during progression, both weapons would obviously go to DPS first under the loot rules Fearless had established.
Only after another couple of months, once the DPS had mostly finished gearing up, would healers start being allowed to bid on them.
Giantstalker's Helmet (Epic)
Bind on Pickup
Head
343 Armor
+23 Agility
+15 Intellect
+8 Spirit
+23 Stamina
+10 Fire Resistance
Durability 85 / 85
Classes: Hunter
Requires Level 60
Equip: Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 1%.
Hunter Tier 1.
Hunters who had no interest in spending their lives as full T2 utility bots and preferred an eight-piece Tier 1 setup would absolutely love it.
Helm of Might (Epic)
Bind on Pickup
Head
Plate
608 Armor
+35 Stamina
+15 Strength
+10 Fire Resistance
Durability 100 / 100
Classes: Warrior
Requires Level 60
Equip: Increases your chance to dodge an attack by 1%.
Equip: Increased Defense +7.
Warrior Tier 1.
Seven Defense Skill and ten Fire Resistance made it exactly the kind of tank gear they desperately needed during MC progression.
Garr's normal haul here was two Tier 1 pieces and one off-set item.
If a fourth item appeared, that meant the extra drop was the Right Half of the Bindings of the Windseeker.
Unfortunately, there were only three items this time.
No right binding.
That left one Binding to hope for in this lockout: Baron Geddon's left half.
"Guild Leader, what dropped?"
Everyone was dying to know whether anything useful for them had appeared.
Gabryell linked the loot.
"Warrior T1 goes to Carlos first. Hunters who haven't gotten anything tonight can bid on the Giantstalker helm. Priests, sit out the Aurastone Hammer."
Nobody objected to the Warrior or Hunter distribution.
The moment he barred Priests from bidding on the healing mace, however, objections were inevitable.
"Why can't Priests bid?"
ServerHeals, the Priest class leader, spoke for the group.
"Yeah," BigHealsShortLegs added. "It's a healing weapon. Priests can use it too."
DontPanicHealz joined in.
"I already have an off-hand. That hammer is better than the staff I'm using."
Danielly and Victor stayed quiet.
They didn't particularly care how the loot was distributed.
Gabryell obviously wasn't trying to screw the Priests over.
They simply didn't need to spend DKP on Aurastone Hammer when something much better for them was waiting deeper in MC.
The same logic applied to Hunters.
There was no reason for them to burn points on temporary upgrades like Striker's Mark or Blastershot Launcher if Fearless could reach Majordomo.
Those were worthwhile items for raids that couldn't make it that far.
Gabryell was confident this group could.
And if they could reach the ninth boss, there was no reason for Priests and Hunters to fight Resto Druids and Holy Paladins over gear that would soon be replaced.
Seeing that some of the Priests still looked unconvinced, he explained.
"You all know we're developing our own addons. Blizzard gave us access to some raw game data, and we managed to pull the Molten Core drop tables from it."
"Majordomo Executus's cache contains either The Eye of Divinity or Ancient Petrified Leaf. Each has a fifty-percent chance, and one of the two is guaranteed every kill."
He might as well explain the Hunter side now too.
Otherwise, the next time something like Blastershot Launcher dropped, they would end up having the same conversation all over again.
"The Eye of Divinity starts the Priest epic weapon quest. Finish it, and you get the strongest healing staff Priests can currently obtain."
He gave them a rough overview of Benediction.
"It has two forms you can switch between. Benediction is for healing. Anathema boosts Shadow damage for Shadow Priests."
"Basically two weapons in one. And the healing bonus is worth several Aurastone Hammers by itself. If you're a Priest in MC, The Eye of Divinity is what you really want."
The Priests stared at him.
A healing bonus in the triple digits?
That sounded absurd.
"What about Ancient Petrified Leaf?" the Hunters asked.
Gabryell gave them a rough overview of Rhok'delar and the rest of the Hunter epic quest rewards.
"Remember the Mature Blue Dragon Sinew we got in Mazthoril? That's one of the items used in the Leaf quest chain."
"Hunters can get Rhok'delar, an epic quiver, and Lok'delar from that chain."
The staff wasn't especially impressive compared to the bow, but until the +15 Agility weapon enchant became available, Hunters had even less reason to chase one-handed weapons.
"At our current pace, we'll reach Majordomo soon. Priests and Hunters will both have access to class-specific epic weapons."
He continued, "So there's really no reason for you to fight Resto Druids and Holy Paladins over something like Aurastone Hammer."
Those two healing specs already had it rough enough.
Whenever a truly powerful caster weapon dropped, they had to compete with DPS for it.
Then whenever some awkward leftover weapon showed up that nobody else wanted, it inevitably got dumped on them.
Especially the poor Resto Druids stuck running around with that damn "excavator" on their backs.
Just looking at them was depressing.
After hearing the explanation, ServerHeals and the other Priests immediately agreed to pass on Aurastone Hammer and wait for Benediction instead.
It wasn't that they didn't want the hammer.
They trusted Gabryell.
They trusted the raid.
And they believed that if everyone kept progressing together, they would eventually clear Molten Core and every Priest would get a Benediction of their own.
Their confidence in the group genuinely moved him.
Then another thought crossed his mind.
"If we keep getting Leaves and never see an Eye, are the Priests going to murder me?"
If their luck turned truly awful and Ancient Petrified Leaf kept dropping over and over while The Eye of Divinity refused to appear, he had a feeling the Priests would never let him hear the end of it.