"Guild leader, we're heading out to level. We'll try to push to 45 as quickly as possible."
David and the others already saw themselves as members of Fearless. For the guild, they wanted to help clear Maraudon and win the challenge.
Gabryell nodded. "Once you hit level 20, start running The Deadmines for quests and some early gear. And remember this—whenever you run dungeons, stick to a five-man party. If you bring a ten-man raid, most quests won't work, and the experience gets heavily reduced because of raid penalties."
In the early days of World of Warcraft, five-man dungeons could technically be entered by up to ten players. But Blizzard wasn't about to let players trivialize dungeon difficulty and farm rewards that easily.
When a raid-party entered a five-man dungeon, most quests couldn't be completed, and the experience from killing mobs dropped to almost nothing.
Without quests, half the reason for running the dungeon disappeared. With mob experience being negligible and bosses dropping a fixed amount of loot each run, bringing ten players actually made gearing less efficient than running it with a standard five-man group.
"Unless it's a dungeon you simply can't beat with five people but still want to clear."
Gabryell paused before adding, "Otherwise, always run dungeons with five."
From what he remembered, during the open beta—when the level cap was 45—using a ten-man group in five-man dungeons was pointless, at least up until Zul'Farrak. Every dungeon before that could be cleared comfortably with five players.
After the official launch, however, the three major level-60 dungeons were so difficult that early players—still poorly geared—often brought extra people just to have a chance at a full clear.
The most famous example was the eight-man Stratholme mount run.
Of course, if your group was too weak, you could still bring ten players into dungeons like The Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, or Scarlet Monastery just to satisfy the pride of clearing them.
"We understand. We'll try to stick to five when we run dungeons."
David and the others weren't idiots. They knew low-level dungeons were mainly for quests and experience, and there was no need to waste time chasing temporary gear.
After that, Gabryell parted ways with them and headed back to Stormwind, planning to take a gryphon to Westfall.
"In Patch 1.10, Blizzard finally limited how many players could enter five-man dungeons after gear had improved and the earlier instances became too easy."
His memory was a little fuzzy after so many years.
"Starting with Patch 1.10, high-level dungeons like Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Depths, and Dire Maul were restricted to five players. Blackrock Spire was reduced from fifteen to ten."
"During the beta, those big guilds definitely used ten-man groups to challenge Maraudon."
With the beta level cap set at 45 and experience no longer important, major guilds naturally chose the safest option—bring ten players.
"And even then, only one guild in the entire world managed to clear it."
That alone showed how brutal Maraudon had been for level-45 players during the beta.
Gabryell quietly ran through the situation in his head.
"The open beta may have a few differences, but the overall structure shouldn't change much. When the time comes, Madhouse will definitely bring a ten-man team for Maraudon."
To win the challenge, there was no way they would stubbornly send only five level-45 players.
They would almost certainly field a ten-man team just like they did in the beta—most likely with the same lineup of players who already had Maraudon experience. Given enough attempts, they would eventually clear it.
"The first battle of Fearless cannot be lost."
Gabryell was already considering possible team compositions.
"We need to quickly train a group of elite players within the guild."
Not just for Maraudon—but for the raids that would come later.
A proper raid guild needed at least fifty elite players:
forty core members and ten backups.
Instead of taking the gryphon right away, he stopped by the Stormwind Bank and checked his mailbox.
"Looks like quite a few things sold."
He had listed ten items earlier. Now six mails had arrived—meaning six of them had already been bought by newbies.
"One day they'll grow up and understand my good intentions. Losing a little early is good for you."
Since the items had been sold fair and square, Gabryell happily collected the gold.
"Let's post a few more. Anything that sells is profit."
He headed to the Auction House and listed every piece of gear and item he didn't need, pricing them at roughly two to five times the vendor value.
After finishing, he took a look at the current listings.
The moment he saw them…
He nearly burst out laughing.
"Linen Cloth for 8 copper each? Which newbie posted this?"
"Damn… some of these are listed below vendor price."
"Hahaha! This weapon is even better—it's posted more than one silver under vendor value."
Linen Cloth sold to vendors for 13 copper each, yet some clueless players were listing it for less.
Gabryell didn't hesitate.
Anything that could be flipped for profit—he bought it.
Running back and forth between the Auction House, his mailbox, and the weapon vendor across the street, he spent about ten minutes doing pure arbitrage.
By the time he finished, he had earned more than ten gold.
At this point, he was probably the richest player in the entire game.
"Too bad there aren't more listings yet."
Gabryell let out a quiet sigh.
Even in Stormwind, very few players were using the Auction House. If more people started posting items, he could make far more money.
"I'll sweep the market again tonight."
Turning down free money would be foolish. If he didn't take the profit, someone else would.
He was also thankful that addons didn't exist yet. Most new players had no idea what items were actually worth to vendors.
Once addons became widespread, flipping items like this would become nearly impossible.
When that happened, he would simply change strategies—stockpiling items that would rise in value later.
A true goblin merchant.
Satisfied with his earnings, Gabryell headed to the Mage Tower to train his level-12 spells:
Conjure Food (Rank 2)
Dampen Magic (Rank 1)
Slow Fall
Fireball (Rank 2)
Unfortunately, he was still 9% short of level 14. Otherwise, he could have learned the mage's first AoE spell:
Arcane Explosion.
"Ogabs, invite me."
Just as he stepped out of the Mage Tower, Lunatori logged in and sent him a whisper.
He invited her to the party.
"They're not online yet?" she asked, glancing at the greyed-out names on the friends list: Egides, Grada, and BentArrow.
"They'll be back soon," he replied. "Let's wait a bit."
"Okay. I'll wait at the inn."
Not wanting to keep her waiting too long, Gabryell ran straight to the flight master and took a gryphon back to Sentinel Hill in Westfall.
Just as his mage was still flying across the sky on the gryphon, the dorm room door suddenly opened.
Carlos, Igor, and Hugo had returned.
Hugo was carrying a takeout meal.
"Your favorite—General Tso's chicken and rice."
He set the bag on Gabryell's desk.
It was already 2:43 PM. After going hungry all day, Gabryell immediately opened the container and started devouring the food.
"So, how did things go?" Carlos asked.
As the dorm leader, he cared the most about the situation.
Speaking with his mouth half full, Gabryell replied, "It's settled. I'll explain after I finish eating."
"Alright. Let's log in first."
Carlos nodded. Seeing the mage already flying back toward Westfall made it clear the problem had been resolved.
"Come on, log in. We still have The Deadmines tonight."
Igor quickly sat down and entered his account information.
"Is Lunatori online?" Hugo asked.
Gabryell swallowed a mouthful of rice.
"She logged in a few minutes ago."
Hugo nodded, sat down at his computer, and logged into the game.
After a short break and a brief interruption, they continued leveling.