Gabryell could not remember the last time he had killed Helcular. He had never fought Helcular in WoW vanilla himself. He had only heard people mention in passing that Blizzard had reworked Helcular in Classic, removing his endless skeleton-summoning ability and turning him into an ordinary elite mob.
The 2004 version of Helcular was the real deal. The endless skeleton swarm he summoned was enough to make any player unlucky enough to witness it feel their scalp go numb.
When Gabryell and Dreamshade's elite teams returned to Southshore, the sky-darkening swarm of skeletons startled them.
"Holy crap, this many?"
Carlos did not deny it at all. As the best-geared main tank on the server, he knew that if he charged into that skeleton swarm, he would be deleted instantly.
"This is terrifying. How could Blizzard design such a ridiculous elite mob?"
Smooch clicked her tongue, voicing what everyone was thinking. "I protest. I demand that the Alliance get to summon Helcular at the Tarren Mill graveyard too."
Gabryell said, "Protest denied. Helcular is undead, and he's friendly to the Horde."
Dreamshade looked at the NPC guards barely holding on and asked, "How do we fight this?"
Without clearing the skeleton swarm, there was no way to even touch Helcular.
"How about I kite him out?" Hugo cut in.
Gabryell shook his head. "Helcular is a level 44 elite caster. If one of his spells hits you, you could get one-shot."
In Gabryell's opinion, only the kind of Hunter who could kite Kazzak all the way to Stormwind would have any hope of kiting Helcular. Hugo clearly was not at that level.
Gabryell thought for a moment, then started assigning roles.
"All Mages, cast Blizzard. We'll clear a path from where the NPC guards are grouped up and escort them in so they can attack Helcular."
The level gap was too large, and the hit rate of single-target spells was miserable. Blizzard's AoE mechanics were different. Although it could still be resisted, the resist rate was not as bad as with spells like Frostbolt.
Gabryell's elite team had arrived with only four Mages. Dreamshade's elite team, however, had more than thirty players, including eight Mages. With twelve Mages casting Blizzard together, they should be able to clear the little skeletons inside Blizzard's area.
"Warlocks, follow up with Rain of Fire. Drop it along both sides of the Blizzard area and clear as many skeletons as possible."
Rain of Fire worked much like Blizzard. If the Warlocks stacked their casts together, they could also clear out the skeletons with only 160 HP.
"Warriors, stand in front of the Mages and Warlocks. Block any skeletons that slip through. Don't let them reach the casters and interrupt their AoE."
"Paladins, time your Blessing of Protection and Lay on Hands carefully. Save Divine Shield. When we push in, go in with the group, pop Divine Shield next to Helcular, and drop Consecration to pull threat on the skeleton adds."
"Priests and Druids, keep the raid topped. If mobs get on you, the others won't have time to peel. Priests, shield yourselves. Druids, shift into Bear Form and tank for a bit."
"What about the Hunter?"
Seeing that Gabryell still had not assigned Hunters anything, Smooch could not help asking.
Gabryell said, "Hunters use your range advantage. Attack Helcular from max range. Don't worry about your pets dying—send them straight in to bite him. Every second they tank is another second bought."
"Got it."
Smooch understood. Her pet was a bear, thick-skinned and tough, the best kind for taking hits.
"Rogues, stealth. Once we start AoEing and pull skeleton threat, sneak in and stab Helcular."
Gabryell said, "Don't be afraid to die. The graveyard is right here. Ten seconds after dying, you're a hero again. Our levels are low. If we want to kill Helcular, we can only throw bodies at him and wear him down."
Dreamshade said, "Exactly. Helcular doesn't have much health. As long as we grind him down, he'll die eventually."
Once the plan was set, Gabryell was the first to cast Blizzard over the area where the NPC guards were clustered. Both sides' guards were level 55, but Southshore's Human guards had about 2,000 less HP than Tarren Mill's guards. Facing the endless skeleton swarm, they were already nearly dead.
The other Mages and Warlocks followed with Blizzard and Rain of Fire. Some nearby solo players saw Fearless and Madhouse attacking Helcular and worked up the courage to join in.
Once the solo players joined, the number of Mages casting Blizzard instantly increased by more than ten, making the skeleton-clearing far more efficient.
"It hit!"
Smooch fired an Aimed Shot at Helcular. Her luck was good. It did not miss.
"Watch Smooch's health. Priests, shield her."
Gabryell gave the order while casting Blizzard. Smooch had pulled Helcular's threat. Without a Priest's shield, she could easily get one-shot.
"Smooch, I shielded you."
Snowlily reacted quickly and was the first to put a shield on Smooch.
Helcular's attack landed on Smooch, shattering the shield around her and dropping her below half health.
"That was scary."
Smooch broke out in a cold sweat. If Snowlily had not shielded her, she would already be watching in black and white.
Helcular had no intention of letting Smooch go. He summoned three Helcular's Hounds to bite her.
"I'm the main tank, tough as a wall. Smooch, hide behind me. I'll protect you."
Egides stepped in front of her and picked up the three Helcular's Hounds.
"Everyone, kill Helcular together. If we don't kill him, we're all going to die."
Gabryell typed in General chat, urging the nearby spectators who still had not joined the fight to take action.
The original, authentic version of Helcular's endless-summoning bug was far too broken. The longer this dragged on, the harder he would be to kill.
Most of the nearby spectators were guild players. Their awareness was not even as good as the solo players'. Only after seeing Gabryell's message in General chat did they reluctantly join the fight.
With more players joining in, the skeleton-clearing speed increased. At last, they escorted the NPC guards all the way to Helcular.
While Gabryell and the others were fighting Helcular, on the Horde side, Windwalker finally let out a breath of relief after learning that Helcular had been successfully summoned. Now they should be able to hold out until reinforcements from the other guilds arrived, instead of collapsing too quickly.
"After you rez, pull back a little first. Regroup before charging again."
Without unified voice comms, Windwalker could only hope more players would see his messages.
"Windwalker, hold on for two more minutes. We're almost there."
The breathing room Helcular gave the Horde was incredibly valuable. It left Gabryell too busy to command the main force, causing the Alliance side to become somewhat chaotic and lose the oppressive pressure it had shown earlier.
Windwalker looked at the private messages from several guild leaders, and joy appeared on his face.
They had finally arrived.
After being pressured for so long, the moment to counterattack had finally come.
"Reinforcements from several Horde guilds are almost at Hillsbrad Foothills."
DeathScum and TwinBleeds, who were responsible for forward scouting, both sent private messages to Gabryell and reported the situation.
Gabryell looked at Helcular, who still had half his health, and asked, "How many?"
DeathScum said, "A lot. I'd estimate fifteen or sixteen raid groups."
This time, both sides had tacitly agreed that only players above level 20 would take part. With the Horde sending another fifteen or sixteen raid groups as reinforcements, they should already be close to their limit. After all, not every player liked PvP, and not every player's computer could handle a thousand-player battle.
"More than ten Horde raid groups have arrived as reinforcements. Everyone, speed up so we can return to the front line."
Gabryell told everyone the bad news. If they did not kill Helcular quickly, the front line would very likely be crushed by more than twenty Horde raid groups.
The Horde had reinforcements, but so did the Alliance.
Across the river from Southshore, a vast mass of Alliance players appeared. Quite a few of them charged toward the graveyard to help kill Helcular.
"Alliance guild Hallelujah, here to help!"
"Alliance guild War Angels, here to help!"
"Alliance guild Westfall, here to help!"
"The Alliance is here!"
More than a dozen small and medium-sized guilds finally arrived in Hillsbrad Foothills with their members, mixed in with plenty of solo players who had come to join the fun. Based on his experience, Gabryell roughly estimated their numbers. There were at least ten raid groups, probably somewhere between ten and fifteen.
In an instant, the Alliance and Horde numbers became roughly even.
From this moment on, the true Battle of Hillsbrad Foothills officially erupted.
With around fifty raid groups and roughly two thousand players participating, the scale of the battle was massive. Since the server could support about five thousand players online at the same time, two thousand players meant nearly forty percent of the server's online population had joined the fight.
That was more than enough to be written into the history of World of Warcraft.