Most of the Horde players in The Barrens were low-level newbies. When they saw twenty Alliance players charging through together, they scattered long before anyone could even think about fighting. There was no way they were going to flag for PvP and get themselves killed.
Gabryell led the group through The Crossroads. "There's a dungeon nearby called Wailing Caverns. It's a lower-level instance, somewhere between The Deadmines and The Stockade."
Wailing Caverns was much more winding than The Deadmines, the kind of dungeon that gave new players a headache. For Tauren players coming out of Mulgore, it was probably the first dungeon they ever encountered.
When they reached The Crossroads, Gabryell suddenly remembered an old fantasy parody series he used to love.
The humor, the dungeon runs, the chaotic party dynamics... honestly, it captured early WoW culture perfectly.
If the company really took off later, maybe they could try making something similar themselves.
Not as a pure passion project, either. A successful Warcraft-style parody series could turn into games, merch, and other projects down the line.
The more he thought about it, the more tempting the idea became.
"There's a Horde camp up ahead. We'll go around it."
The Crossroads had Horde guards around level 40. Snapping back to reality, Gabryell led everyone around the camp and onto the Gold Road.
The Barrens was a treasure map, filled with valuable recipes and patterns. The cooking recipe for Savory Deviate Delight was especially valuable, selling for several times more on the Alliance side than on the Horde side. If they were not heading to Maraudon, Gabryell really would have stopped to farm for it.
"When you have time later, come farm mobs near The Crossroads. If anyone gets the Savory Deviate Delight recipe, I'll buy it for 500 gold."
Gabryell did not have time to farm it himself, so he might as well give the guild members a chance to make some money.
"What's Savory Deviate Delight?"
"It's cooked food. Eating it randomly transforms you. Pretty fun."
"That thing is worth 500 gold?"
"It is. If you get one, sell it to me. I'll buy it."
"Wow, 500 gold. That's crazy. I'll definitely come farm it when I have time."
The last one to speak was Coldhands. His luck was no worse than Lunatori's. He had already farmed both the Tiny Crimson Whelpling and the Hyacinth Macaw, so maybe he really could get the Savory Deviate Delight recipe too.
Gabryell had already explained the Zul'Farrak graveyard farm to Coldhands in detail. He told him not to open too many Shallow Graves at first and to start by practicing Cone of Cold on four or five zombies.
He also warned him not to be afraid of dying. If he died, he could just corpse run and try again. A Mage who was afraid of dying would never become a real solo farmer. Every strong AoE-farming Mage had died hundreds, even thousands of times.
Since they were not stopping to kill mobs in The Barrens this time, they could forget about Savory Deviate Delight for now. If someone farmed it later, he would just buy it.
To reach Stonetalon Mountains from The Barrens, they had to pass Honor's Stand. Gabryell's group of twenty flattened the Horde outpost easily, scaring the nearby Horde players into running.
"Haha, these Horde are hilarious. We can't even attack them first, so why are they running?" Igor laughed.
"The Horde only act tough when they have more people. Equal numbers, we crush them," David said viciously.
He still held the deepest grudge against the Horde.
"Everyone mount up. Don't stop on the road. Ride straight to Desolace."
It was already 7:30, only half an hour before the agreed time. They could not waste any more time.
Stonetalon Mountains was a contested zone, and the Alliance had a camp there called Stonetalon Peak. But the area was so out of the way that almost no Alliance players bothered going there. Other than new Night Elf players leveling through Kalimdor, most Alliance players had probably never been there at all.
Gabryell skipped the Stonetalon Peak flight path entirely and led everyone straight through Charred Vale into Desolace.
"Everyone unlock the flight path first. We can use it next time."
When they arrived at Nijel's Point, they unlocked the flight path, but because the route was not connected yet, it was unusable for now.
Gabryell had another reason for skipping Stonetalon Peak. After Maraudon, he planned to take everyone to Feralas to unlock the Feathermoon Stronghold flight path, then go to Thousand Needles and unlock the Alliance flight point that many players could never find.
Feathermoon Stronghold was an important Alliance outpost. The Master Alchemy trainer was there, so they had to visit it sooner or later.
Later on, whether they were going to Dire Maul or killing the green dragon world boss near Dream Bough, Feathermoon Stronghold would be the Alliance staging point.
"Ogabs, you're in Desolace?" Dreamshade had apparently been watching Gabryell's location closely and whispered him as soon as it changed.
"Are you already inside the Maraudon cave?" Gabryell asked.
Dreamshade said, "We took the Feralas route and left half an hour earlier than you. We're already here."
"Wait for us. We're at Nijel's Point."
"Hurry. Word got out that we're running Maraudon. Freedom, Hallelujah, War Angels, Westfall, and a few other guilds heard about it and are bringing groups too."
Dreamshade added another warning. "Freedom seems to have picked up a new whale. He bought a max-level Mage account, bought a ton of gold, and geared their core members with high-level blue BoEs and even a few epic BoEs. Their main team is much stronger now."
"Freedom's team entered Maraudon a few minutes ago. They're probably trying to steal the first clear before us again."
Dreamshade was clearly urging him to hurry.
Gabryell smiled after hearing that. "Looks like they still haven't accepted losing. They want to overtake us and become the top Alliance guild."
"Of course," Dreamshade said. "They promoted that whale straight to vice-guild leader. Looks like they're about to recruit hard. If they can't compete normally, they'll just throw money at the problem."
Gabryell did not care about some whale. In World of Warcraft, dungeon clears were not something money alone could buy. They relied on execution, raid leading, and whether every player in the group met the requirements for progression.
"We'll be there soon. Are you at the purple entrance or the orange entrance?"
"My group is at the orange entrance."
After ending the whisper, Gabryell led everyone toward Maraudon.
Maraudon was deep inside Valley of Spears, beyond a stone gate. After opening the gate and entering the cave, he led everyone straight to the orange entrance on the right.
Maraudon had three entrances. The purple entrance on the left led through the satyr area, while the orange entrance on the right went through the earth elemental side. The middle entrance required the Scepter of Celebras quest, which let players teleport directly to Earth Song Falls.
Gabryell planned to deal with the Scepter of Celebras quest after they fully cleared Maraudon. There was no rush yet. They were still a long way from solo-farming Princess Theradras anyway.
The mobs along the way had already been cleared by the various guilds, so they reached the orange entrance smoothly.
"You're finally here."
Dreamshade typed directly in /say. "Since you're here, let's go in together. The other guild groups have already entered."
Gabryell took a look. Madhouse had also brought twenty people. It seemed they had the same idea and wanted an extra safety net.
"Alright. I'll split the teams, then we go in."
He added, "You don't need to wait for us. Go first. We'll be inside in a minute."
Dreamshade did not argue and led his group into Maraudon.
"Everyone, reform into the teams we assigned earlier. My team, stay with me."
On the road, Gabryell had already split everyone into two ten-player teams based on class balance, making sure both groups had a real chance to clear Maraudon.
He was fully confident they could clear Maraudon with ten people. If they were level 48 instead of only 45, five people would have been enough.
Everyone quickly adjusted their groups.
On Gabryell's side, the tanks were Carlos and Warquell. The healers were Lunatori and ServerHeals. The DPS were Gabryell, Hugo, Igor, DesertWanderer, Coldhands, and DeathScum.
David and Susie handled tanking for the second group. Their healers were Mushroom, SevenDays, and StyleOverStats. Their DPS were DontPanicHealz, FirstDate, OliveDrab, Smooch, and TwinBleeds.
Having three healers could not be helped. They had too many healers, and three was safer anyway. Five DPS was enough for Maraudon's trash. The real test was the Shadow Priest and Warlock, since their damage would put real pressure on the tanks' threat generation. A weaker tank would probably have mobs peeling off constantly.
"Go!"
At Gabryell's command, both teams entered Maraudon through the orange entrance together.
The Maraudon race between Fearless and Madhouse had officially begun.