By the time the four alts reached level 40, Carlos and the others had finally reached level 58.
Gabryell had originally planned to borrow Coldhands' account. Since Coldhands was already level 60, he could have used two Mages to run Stratholme and carry the alts the rest of the way to 60.
Unfortunately, that guy was nowhere to be found.
Since that plan was off the table, Gabryell simply brought Carlos and the others to Blackrock Depths to do quests. By the time they finished most of the chains there, they should at least gain another level.
"We'll knock out Molten Core attunement, Onyxia attunement, and the BRD princess chain together."
Level 58 was more than enough for Blackrock Depths. In fact, the dungeon could be cleared at level 56, though the later princess rescue step would be much more troublesome at that level and could easily lead to a wipe.
Since the first real field objectives of both the Onyxia attunement questline and the BRD princess quest chain took place in the Burning Steppes, they might as well do both in one trip.
Of course, to start the BRD princess chain, they first had to find Royal Historian Archesonus beside King Magni Bronzebeard in The High Seat of Ironforge, accept The Smoldering Ruins of Thaurissan, and then go to the Ruins of Thaurissan in the Burning Steppes to collect twelve Thaurissan Relics.
"Everyone 58+, meet at The High Seat in Ironforge."
Gabryell could not handle the attunement work alone. If Fearless wanted to progress Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair, every player who had reached the required level needed to finish their attunements as soon as possible.
For Molten Core and Onyxia progression, they needed a 40-player raid with the best setup they could put together. That meant they needed roughly 100 guild members to reach level 60. Otherwise, building a proper raid composition would be extremely difficult.
A random 40-player raid thrown together at the last minute had no chance of progressing the 2004 versions of Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair. This was not later WoW Classic. The mobs' armor, damage, and health had not been nerfed yet, and against freshly leveled players, that raw stat advantage was brutal.
"The hard part of level 60 raids isn't the strategy. It's the stat check."
Compared with raids from later expansions, level 60 raids had relatively simple mechanics. There were not many phases and not many abilities. The reason so many guilds got stuck was that Blizzard had tuned raid mobs with far higher stats than players, giving the mobs a pure numerical advantage.
Take the two Molten Giants at the entrance of Molten Core, for example. Why did they stonewall so many raids and flatten main tanks over and over? Because they had high armor, high damage, and huge health pools. Against players who had only recently hit 60, they were a wall of raw numbers.
In later WoW Classic, Blizzard sped up the game's pace by nerfing the numbers across raid content. Once that stat advantage disappeared, Vanilla raids, whose mechanics were never especially complicated to begin with, naturally turned into loot piñatas. Any half-decent group could steamroll them.
Fearless happened to have exactly fifteen players online at level 58 or higher, enough to form three parties for Blackrock Depths.
"We're here."
"Talk to Royal Historian Archesonus and pick up the quest."
Gabryell had already told everyone to get on Ventrilo, which made coordination much easier.
"Once you've got it, fly to the Burning Steppes."
As more and more players reached level 58 and above, more people would start doing the attunement quests and the BRD princess chain. Once that happened, the area would definitely become crowded.
Still, it would probably take some time before other players discovered that Dragonkin Menace from the Alliance camp in the Burning Steppes was the starting quest for the Onyxia attunement chain. Only after more players completed the series would the information spread.
All fifteen of them flew to Morgan's Vigil together.
"Everyone find Helendis Riverhorn and pick up Dragonkin Menace."
Gabryell accepted the quest first.
"Post 'done' in raid chat when you've got it."
A string of "done" messages quickly appeared.
Since quest progress could not be done properly as a raid, they had to split into parties.
"We've got fifteen people, so three groups. Everyone stay in the same Vent channel for now. Before we enter BRD, I'll give instructions together."
Before entering Blackrock Depths, there was no need for each party to split off into separate channels.
Gabryell began assigning teams. His own party stayed the same as always: himself, Carlos, Igor, Hugo, and Lunatori.
"Desert, Danielly, Smooch, OldSeven, and Susie, you're one group."
Running Blackrock Depths without a Mage would be painful. Counting Gabryell, they happened to have three Mages online, so each party could get one.
"David, SevenDays, DeathScum, Milo, and OneShotCrit, you're the last group."
Among David's friends, DontPanicHealz and MushroomHunter were still only level 57 and level 56. They could wait until level 60 to do it. David and the others could take them through later anyway.
"Milo is already 59?"
Gabryell was a little surprised when he saw Milo's level.
Over the past month, Milo's reputation in the guild had been getting better and better. Everyone had started calling him Good Guy Milo.
That nickname was not bought with gold like MrPerfect, the vice-guild leader of Freedom. Milo had earned it the simple way: by actually helping people.
Whenever someone in the guild needed help, as long as he had time, he was usually the first to show up.
After he helped enough people, his reputation naturally spread. Now, he had become one of the most well-liked players in Fearless.
"We should still keep an eye on Milo," Carlos had warned him once. "People like him a lot right now. If he ever has other plans, he might be able to take some of them with him."
In World of Warcraft, the number one guild was not decided by roster size alone. A massive roster meant nothing if it could not kill bosses. In WoW, prestige came from progression: first raid kills, clean clears, and being the guild everyone else was trying to catch.
"It's not about quantity. It's about quality," Gabryell had said. "If someone follows Milo and leaves, that only proves they were never suited to chase server-firsts with us."
Gabryell had observed Milo for a month. As far as character went, Milo was easily one of the best players he had met. At least for now, he could be trusted.
And if you trusted someone, you could not spend every day suspecting them. That kind of paranoia would only twist your own head. Eventually, you would start seeing hidden motives in everyone around you and turn yourself into a complete mess.
After the parties were divided, everyone left the camp together to work on the quests.
Compared to The Smoldering Ruins of Thaurissan, Dragonkin Menace was an elite kill quest. It required them to kill fifteen Black Broodlings, ten Black Dragonspawn, four Black Wyrmkin, and one Black Drake.
The Black Broodlings were normal mobs, but the Black Dragonspawn, Black Wyrmkin, and Black Drake were elites. Fresh level 60 characters without decent gear could not necessarily solo them.
As David's group moved in on the Black Drake, SevenDays immediately started running his mouth.
"Welcome to David's wipe squad. I've already got my finger on the bubble key."
Then he continued giving very helpful advice.
"Death, don't take your hand off Vanish, or you're really going to live up to your name. Milo, keep Ice Block ready. OneShot, keep Feign Death ready. David's tanking is more theoretical than practical."
David snapped, "Keep talking. If I die, I'm blaming the healer in guild chat."
The three parties had to farm separately. Each group took one camp, and finishing all the quest objectives would take some time.
"After you finish Dragonkin Menace, don't rush back. Head over to the Ruins of Thaurissan and finish the Ironforge quest too."
The rewards from the BRD princess chain were important for both physical and caster players. Some of the rings were among the best options currently available. The chain was not especially difficult either, and it saved players from mindlessly farming dungeons just to fill a ring slot.
Before raid gear, the best healer ring was Fordring's Seal, the final reward from Of Love and Family. With +37 healing, it could last all the way until Blackwing Lair, where healers would finally replace it with Pure Elementium Band from Nefarian.
Running double Cauterizing Bands was too hard to pull off in a DKP raid. Unless you were a whale in a GDKP run, it was not realistic.
After they finished the BRD princess chain and the Onyxia attunement questline, Gabryell would have healers like Lunatori and Danielly do Of Love and Family as well. When it was time to go to Stratholme, they could do it the same way as now and form two or three parties together.