Two days of nonstop dungeon grinding had finally paid off.
Gabryell looked over his equipment and was satisfied with what he had managed to put together.
Head: Crimson Felt Hat
Neck: Star of Mystaria
Shoulders: Boreal Mantle
Back: Spritecaster Cape
Chest: Alanna's Embrace
Wrists: Dire Maul wasn't open yet, so Sublime Wristguards weren't available. Gabryell also hadn't felt like torturing himself farming Lord Incendius over and over for Flameweave Cuffs of Frozen Wrath, so he had bought a pair of Magiskull Cuffs from the Auction House as a temporary replacement.
Magiskull Cuffs
Binds when equipped
Wrist
Cloth
38 Armor
+17 Intellect
+7 Stamina
Durability 30 / 30
Requires Level 57
Ignoring set bonuses, they were a better standalone option for him than Magister's Bindings.
Hands: Hands of Power
Waist: Ban'thok Sash
Legs: Skyshroud Leggings
Feet: Dragonrider Boots
Rings: Songstone of Ironforge, Maiden's Circle
Trinkets: Briarwood Reed, Eye of the Beast
For his weapon setup, Gabryell had switched from a staff to a one-handed weapon and off-hand.
From Darkmaster Gandling, he had gotten the caster dagger Witchblade.
Witchblade (Rare)
Binds when picked up
One-Hand
Dagger
45–85 Damage
Speed 1.60
(40.6 damage per second)
+8 Intellect
Durability 65 / 65
Requires Level 57
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 14.
For the off-hand, Gabryell hadn't bothered farming the Temple of Atal'Hakkar for a Drakestone of Frozen Wrath.
Instead, he had gone all the way through Linken's quest chain in Un'Goro Crater and obtained the Spirit of Aquementas.
Spirit of Aquementas (Uncommon)
Binds when picked up
Held In Off-hand
Equip: Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 25.
The chain was painfully long, with well over ten steps from beginning to end, but at least the reward was guaranteed. That was still preferable to repeatedly farming drakes in the Sunken Temple and praying for the right random enchantment.
And in the current version of the game, Spirit of Aquementas was exceptionally good for mana efficiency.
Its effect wouldn't be changed into spell damage and healing until later.
Wand: Stormrager had finally been retired from his PvE setup. Its Stamina and Intellect made it more appealing for PvP, while Darkmaster Gandling's Bonecreeper Stylus gave him actual spell damage.
Bonecreeper Stylus (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Ranged
Wand
83–155 Arcane Damage
Speed 1.90
(62.6 damage per second)
+4 Intellect
Durability 65 / 65
Requires Level 57
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 11.
"My Frost damage has to be near the top of the server now."
Gabryell wasn't exaggerating much.
His gear was already extremely close to what a Frost Mage could realistically assemble before raids and before later content opened. Any major upgrades from here would have to come from places like Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair.
Crimson Felt Hat gave 30 spell damage, Boreal Mantle added 29 Frost damage, Spritecaster Cape gave 14, Alanna's Embrace 20, Hands of Power 26, Ban'thok Sash 12, Skyshroud Leggings 34, Dragonrider Boots 18, Songstone of Ironforge and Maiden's Circle 18 each, Briarwood Reed 29, Witchblade 14, and Bonecreeper Stylus another 11.
Altogether, that put him at +273 damage with Frost spells, while his general spell-damage bonus sat slightly lower because Boreal Mantle only improved Frost.
And that was before accounting for spell hit and crit from pieces like Star of Mystaria and Eye of the Beast.
Enchanting couldn't add much more raw damage yet either. For his current gear, things like +7 Intellect to bracers and extra stats on the chest were useful, while movement speed and resistance enchants still had situational value.
There simply wasn't a weapon spell-power enchant waiting for him at this stage of the game.
"Ogabs, Madhouse, Halalei, Freedom, and several other guilds have already gone into Molten Core."
DesertWanderer whispered him just as Gabryell finished going over his equipment.
As one of Fearless's officers, DesertWanderer had taken it upon himself to keep track of what the other major guilds were doing.
"The Horde's moving too. Hall of Fame and several of their bigger guilds entered Molten Core after the Alliance groups went in."
That was predictable.
Once the Alliance started raid progression, there was no chance the Horde's larger guilds would simply sit around and watch. They had staggered their entry times enough to avoid turning Blackrock Mountain into another faction war, but both sides were now officially racing.
DesertWanderer sounded uneasy.
"Should we get everyone together and start Molten Core too?"
Fearless had spent the entire server launch at or near the front of progression.
Watching other guilds enter the first raid before them clearly bothered him.
"No."
Gabryell didn't hesitate.
"We said next Tuesday, so we start next Tuesday. Another couple of days gives everyone more time to finish their gear and consumables."
DesertWanderer still wasn't convinced.
"What if one of them gets the server first before then?"
Gabryell laughed.
Server first?
He wasn't worried about that.
He had already seen what the best raiders of this era would look like months from now. The 2005 world-first Ragnaros footage had made the gap painfully obvious: compared with what players would eventually learn about talents, rotations, threat, consumables, and raid optimization, even the strongest guilds of the early game were still figuring out the basics.
Drop a competent raid from the much later WoW Classic era into this period and the difference in accumulated knowledge alone would be enormous.
"Don't worry," Gabryell said. "Molten Core isn't as simple as they think."
He was more worried about Madhouse and the others wiping until half their raid wanted to uninstall.
The two Molten Giants near the entrance alone were going to give unprepared groups a rude introduction to raid trash.
At their current level of knowledge and preparation, Gabryell wouldn't be surprised if some guilds needed multiple resets before they made serious progress.
"Is it really that bad?" DesertWanderer asked.
"Worse."
Gabryell sounded completely certain.
DesertWanderer had learned by now that when Gabryell talked about dungeon and raid mechanics with that much confidence, there was usually a reason.
"So we just keep farming gear?"
Instead of answering directly, Gabryell asked, "How many raid groups did the Horde bring?"
"Hall of Fame probably sent three. I'm not sure about the others, but the bigger guilds should be around the same. There are more than a dozen guilds involved, so there have to be a lot of people inside."
Gabryell started doing the math.
Across all the major Horde guilds, there were probably seven or eight hundred players tied up in Molten Core progression.
And that didn't include smaller guilds following along, high-level players still leveling in the Plaguelands, or people farming endgame dungeons elsewhere.
Which meant Orgrimmar was probably emptier right now than it had been at any point since the server opened.
Gabryell smiled.
Perfect.
"Put the word out on TeamSpeak. Everyone level 55 or higher who can get online should log in. We're organizing a guild event."
The timing was too good to waste.
If everything went well, Fearless was about to organize its first sightseeing tour of Orgrimmar.
And if Thrall happened to die during the tour?
Even better.
There was another reason for doing it now.
Every other major guild had already started Molten Core while Fearless was deliberately waiting. Even if Gabryell knew there was no reason to rush, some guild members would inevitably start wondering whether they were falling behind.
A massive raid on Orgrimmar would give them something much more entertaining to think about.
At worst, they got a guided tour of the Horde capital before being killed.
At best...
They got Thrall.
DesertWanderer clearly misunderstood.
"You changed your mind? We're starting Molten Core tonight?"
"No. Tuesday is still Tuesday."
Gabryell grinned.
"This event has nothing to do with Molten Core. We're going to Orgrimmar, taking in the sights, and having a little heart-to-heart with Thrall."
There was silence on the other end.
Then DesertWanderer finally asked, "We're attacking Orgrimmar?"
"'Attacking' makes it sound so unfriendly."
Gabryell's grin widened.
"We're just going to sack the place."
Another silence.
Then DesertWanderer exploded with excitement.
"I'm getting everyone online right now!"
A surprising number of guild members were technically still logged in anyway, with WoW running in the background while they ate, studied, or did something else.
The moment an announcement went out on TeamSpeak saying Fearless was organizing a full-guild event, people would start rushing back to their computers.
And once they discovered that the event wasn't Molten Core progression at all, but an invasion of Orgrimmar...
Raid night could wait.
This was going to be much more interesting…