The Scarabs hadn't dropped Edgemaster's Handguards, but a one-handed mace.
Ardent Custodian (Epic)
Binds when equipped
Main Hand Mace
48 - 90 Damage Speed 2.10
(32.9 DPS)
100 Armor
Durability 105 / 105
Requires Level 38
Equip: Increases Defense Skill by 5.
A Main Hand Mace with 100 armor and +5 Defense Skill, perfect for a Human Main tank.
Because swords looked so cool, many players assumed Humans should use swords and ignored maces, forgetting that the Human racial talent wasn't only Sword Specialization. There was also mace specialization, and both added +5 skill. Human Warriors and Rogues could use maces just fine.
Of course, one-handed maces really weren't as stylish as swords, and strong ones were hard to get, so not many players used them. If you insisted on playing with maces in the early level-60 era and had the strength to take down Kazzak, you could compete for the Empyrean Demolisher.
That weapon was even more expensive than the Chromatically Tempered Sword of the same tier thanks to its powerful stats, earning it the nickname "Sky-Shattering Hammer."
When Naxxramas arrived, the Lost Limb appeared, better known as the "Electric Hammer." Countless Fury Warriors and Rogues switched to one-handed maces. In the face of overwhelming stats, looks no longer mattered.
"BoE epic. Same rule as always: everyone rolls."
The rule couldn't be broken. Aside from BoE epics dropped in raids, any BoE epic from a 5-man dungeon or the open world was rolled on by everyone by default.
Gabryell rolled first, and everyone followed.
100!
Someone rolled a 100!
"Congratulations, you just got yourself a BoE epic."
"Holy crap, Quell, your luck's exploding today. You actually rolled 100."
The person who rolled 100 was Warquell. He was visibly excited. "I got it!"
With that, he equipped the Ardent Custodian. Now that he had a Main tank weapon, he was one step closer to becoming a proper Protection Paladin and had taken another big step down that path.
"That weapon could sell for over a hundred gold, and you actually equipped it right away!"
"Nice, Quell. That's commitment. No wonder you want to be a Protection Paladin."
Warquell truly loved Protection Paladins. Otherwise, he never would have given up over a hundred gold and equipped the Ardent Custodian on the spot.
Gabryell was very pleased with his attitude and increasingly felt he had real potential. Once the guild's raid runs became stable, he could start bringing Warquell into raids as a Protection Paladin and slowly help him grow into the role.
"Between the rock on the right side of the scarab area and the slanted stone slab, you can also drop combat." Gabryell hadn't forgotten to whisper Coldhands about the scarab-area reset spot. If he ever got knocked off his mount, that spot could save his life.
"Thanks, guild leader." Coldhands kept playing the model student.
Gabryell whispered Coldhands again, telling him about the two reset spots in the graveyard area. Ardent Custodian was just a brief interlude. Since Warquell had already equipped it, everyone stopped thinking about it. Under Gabryell's lead, they headed toward Zul'Farrak's first boss, Antu'sul.
"Careful, everyone. Don't get close to the cave entrance. If you do, the boss will activate immediately."
When they reached the cave where Antu'sul waited, Gabryell warned them. This boss's trigger mechanic was especially nasty. The moment anyone got close to the cave, the boss would activate and rush out. Even a level 60 Rogue in stealth would trigger him by approaching, and the boss could still break stealth and attack.
After clearing the mobs outside, Gabryell said, "Egides, go trigger the boss."
Carlos approached the cave. Antu'sul roared and charged out, summoning a swarm of little lizards as he ran.
"Don't kill the lizards. If you kill them, he'll keep summoning more. Quell, tank the little lizards. Everyone else, burn the boss. When Earthbind Totem appears, ranged players switch immediately and Fire Blast it down."
Gabryell cast Frostbolt while giving orders.
The little lizards had low health and weak attacks, so Warquell had no trouble holding them. When Antu'sul summoned Earthbind Totem, Gabryell immediately swapped targets and destroyed it with Fire Blast.
If that totem wasn't killed, it would be maddening. It constantly rooted nearby players in place while the boss backed up just far enough that melee couldn't reach him. Because of that, melee players basically couldn't hit the Earthbind Totem and had to rely on ranged players to deal with it.
Once the Earthbind Totem was handled, Antu'sul was free loot. If a five-man party came in without any ranged players, they could only pray.
By now, Lunatori's loot luck was legendary in Fearless. Whenever she was in the party, everyone automatically let her open the boss corpse.
These days, countless groups invited her whenever they ran dungeons. As long as she had time, she would help. Since she was also a girl, she was extremely popular in the guild and had the feel of becoming Fearless's guild flower.
Sang'thraze the Deflector (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Unique
One-handed sword
34 - 65 Damage Speed 1.70
(29.1 DPS)
Durability 90 / 90
Requires Level 44
Equip: Increases your chance to parry attacks by 1%.
Its attack speed was very fast, so Rogues could play around with it too. A parry sword setup had surprisingly good results for solo farming. However, Gabryell's team had no Rogue, so this one-handed sword naturally belonged to the Main tank.
"I have Ardent Custodian, so I'll pass this weapon to Egides."
Warquell wasn't greedy. He clicked pass, and the Counter went into Carlos's backpack.
Carlos equipped the Counter. A little extra parry was always good, since it could trigger Revenge more often and help stabilize threat.
After Antu'sul went down, Gabryell led everyone to the Graveyard.
"Whoa, there are two bosses!"
Warquell exclaimed. Beside the Shaman stood a troll mob dual-wielding daggers.
Gabryell looked over and realized it was Zul'Farrak's rare elite, Dustwraith. Rare was rare, but unfortunately, it didn't drop anything good. The only blue item on its loot table wouldn't be added until after Ahn'Qiraj opened.
"Clear the Shallow Graves first, then fight the boss. Don't open too many at once. Six or seven is enough."
"If you don't clear the graves, the boss will summon mobs from them. The more graves you leave, the more mobs he summons."
Gabryell had no intention of doing a one-pull Zul'Farrak graveyard run. With teammates here, opening several at a time was safer and faster.
There was no need to activate the Shaman first in a raid group. Activating him would only hurt efficiency.
Carlos had watched Gabryell solo farm the Zul'Farrak graveyard before. As the main tank, he took the initiative to open the graves so the spawned mobs' threat would land on him.
The zombies and Fallen Heroes were all melee mobs and died quickly. Before long, every Shallow Grave had been cleared.
"Pull the bosses. Both together. Carlos takes the Shaman, Quell takes Dustwraith."
Dustwraith was weak, so pulling both at once was no problem and saved time.
Gabryell and the others were roommates, and everyone had long since gotten used to it, so no one found it strange when they called each other Carlos, Igor, Gabryell, and Hugo. If they didn't call them that, people would actually feel confused about who they meant.
Carlos went up and activated the Shaman, while Warquell tanked Dustwraith.
"Kill the Shaman first. Watch the interrupts on Healing Wave. When a totem appears, switch immediately and destroy it."
Fighting the Shaman normally was easy as long as the totems were handled. As for his Shadow Bolt and Shadow Bolt Volley, with two healers around, they could heal through it easily.
With their experience from Antu'sul, everyone swapped to totems smoothly. The Shaman didn't get off a single Healing Wave, as all of them were interrupted. Without the help of skeletons and Shallow Grave zombies, he soon fell.
No one looted right away. Everyone disciplinedly switched to Dustwraith.
Only after Dustwraith fell did Lunatori step forward to loot.
The Shaman was generous and dropped Zum'rah's Vexing Cane. Gabryell already had one, and Lunatori had Hand of Righteousness and didn't need it, so Coldhands was overjoyed and happily equipped it.
Dustwraith, however, only dropped a green BoE. It was an absolute disgrace to rare elites. Blizzard created it but didn't give it proper drops, making it completely pointless.
"Why is this rare elite's loot so garbage?" Igor complained. In everyone's mind, rares were supposed to drop something amazing.
Gabryell figured he should explain things before everyone started thinking Lunatori's loot luck had finally run out. "That rare's actual blue drop doesn't get added until much later. Right now, it only drops garbage."
"Stingy," Igor muttered, despising Blizzard in his heart.
His contempt wasn't wrong. By Phase 5, when Ahn'Qiraj opened, who would still want a blue item from a level 45 dungeon? Who knew what Blizzard had been thinking during the initial design? Their creative team had probably even felt smug about it.
Doing this for the three major level-60 dungeons made sense, since it prevented overly strong blue items from lowering Molten Core's difficulty. But doing it to low-level dungeons only proved that Blizzard's creative team had badly underestimated player ingenuity, especially Mage player ingenuity.
They thought players leveling alts would still follow the normal path of questing and running dungeons step by step. They never imagined Mage players would experiment so aggressively that they would turn the game into an AoE-boosting world, carrying people through dungeons all the way to max level.
"David, where are you guys now?" Gabryell asked. As the guild leader, he couldn't ignore the other team's progress.
David said, "We just reached the graveyard area."
Gabryell hurriedly reminded him, "Remember to clear the Shallow Graves before fighting the Shaman. Otherwise, you're guaranteed to wipe, because the boss will summon the elite mobs from the Shallow Graves to help him."
David said, "Good thing you reminded me in time, guild leader. A few seconds later and I would've pulled the boss."
David looked at the dense cluster of Shallow Graves around him and felt a chill. If all of them contained mobs and the boss summoned them at once, their ten-man group would definitely wipe.
Gabryell whispered to Coldhands again, telling him the two reset spots in the graveyard area.
"After Zul'Farrak, I'll show you a gold farm. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get it down, thirty or forty gold an hour is easy."
Gabryell planned to walk him through the Zul'Farrak graveyard farm after the run.
Coldhands immediately perked up. "Thirty or forty gold an hour? Boss, I love you."
Gabryell grimaced. "Hard pass."
Coldhands typed /laugh, leaving everyone else confused. Was he really that happy over Zum'rah's Vexing Cane?
Igor gave him a pitying look. "Man's losing it over one blue staff. Give him Staff of Jordan and he'll start offering foot massages."
Once the Graveyard was clear, they moved on to Zul'Farrak's most iconic event: the hundred-troll staircase fight, one of Vanilla WoW's classic five-man dungeon moments and something players would keep talking about for years.