Without Dampen Magic, the melee players simply could not withstand Landslide's AoE magic damage. The level disadvantage was painfully obvious. Every AoE shredded their health bars.
Fortunately, the two healers were strong enough to keep everyone alive.
"This is taking forever."
The level gap made their hit rate miserable. With so many misses, their damage naturally felt like it had slowed to a crawl.
"Good thing we brought ten people," Carlos said. "If there were only five of us, we'd be completely screwed."
He finally understood why Gabryell had insisted that bringing only five people to Maraudon was basically suicide.
A level 45 five-man group truly could not clear Maraudon. At level 48 or higher, maybe. When the level difference was this bad, numbers were the only way to make up for it.
Whenever Landslide summoned his little rock adds, he briefly stopped attacking. That was the best window to push damage and gave the healers and melee a chance to breathe.
It was also the perfect time for the ranged DPS to burn him down.
Everyone used their cooldowns.
14%.
11%.
9%.
By the time Landslide started attacking again, his health had already dropped to 7%.
"I'm almost out of mana!" Lunatori shouted.
"Hold a little longer," Gabryell said. "Save Innervate if you can."
Innervate needed to be saved for Princess Theradras. She hit much harder than Landslide, and the healing pressure would be even worse.
Gabryell glanced at ServerHeals' mana bar.
He was genuinely good. His mana management was excellent. After this whole fight, he still had around 10% mana left.
As long as the healers still had mana, they could win.
Gabryell used a Mana Jade, restored some mana, then unloaded everything he had into Landslide's final sliver of health.
"He's dead!"
When Landslide finally collapsed, Carlos had only 18% health left. One more hit and he probably would have gone down.
That fight had been way too close.
With Landslide dead, the little rock adds disappeared on their own, instantly freeing Warquell from pressure.
"Whew. That was rough."
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
And this was not even the final boss. If it had been Princess Theradras, they definitely would have lost people.
Lunatori stepped forward to loot.
Rockgrip Gauntlets (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Hands Mail
198 Armor
+10 Intellect
+10 Stamina
Durability 40 / 40
Requires Level 48
Equip: +28 Attack Power
A mail item. Judging by the stats, a Retribution Paladin could use it too.
However, Igor had just gotten Nightblade from Hugo, so he felt too embarrassed to compete for it. In the end, Hugo took the gauntlets.
"Gab, Freedom wiped!"
DesertWanderer brought good news.
The Freedom team, which had been leading earlier, had suffered a wipe.
"Which boss got them?" Gabryell asked.
"Princess. They skipped Landslide and went straight for her. Then they got wiped."
Straight to Princess?
Gabryell laughed.
So Freedom thought killing Princess alone would count as a first clear. They were still trying to play little tricks. Some people really never learned.
"David, are you in Inner Maraudon yet?" he asked through a whisper.
"Just got in. We're still clearing trash. We accidentally pulled a Theradrim Guardian patrol with the Diemetradons and almost wiped. We barely stabilized it. Half the raid died before the pull ended."
Half the raid dying said enough.
Avoiding a full wipe was already lucky.
"Be more careful. Watch patrol routes and don't rush." There were still several dangerous pulls ahead.
"Won't happen again," David replied. "I'll check everything before pulling."
After finishing with David, Gabryell whispered Dreamshade.
"How far are you?"
Dreamshade countered, "What about you?"
"We just killed Landslide."
Dreamshade was shocked. "That fast? We only just reached the goblin."
"We took a different route," Gabryell explained. "Killed Landslide first. Haven't done Tinkerer Gizlock yet."
Dreamshade clearly relaxed.
For a moment, he had thought Madhouse was already a boss behind. If that were true, they would almost certainly lose.
"You're going to Princess now?"
"Yeah."
"Freedom wiped there. Their two tanks got slapped down in just a few hits. A level 45 tank is basically paper in front of her."
Gabryell knew exactly what he meant.
He had solo-farmed Princess thousands of times.
Even level 60 characters did not dare face-tank her for long.
A level 45 tank stood even less of a chance.
After eating and drinking to recover, Gabryell led everyone out of Landslide's crystal cave and toward the Princess's chamber.
"Princess Theradras must be pretty, right?" Hugo asked on the way. "Otherwise, why would Zaetar fall for her? Druids can't have taste that bad."
Thinking of Princess Theradras's appearance, Gabryell could not help laughing.
"Oh, she's beautiful alright. So beautiful it hurts. You'll understand when you see her."
Princess Theradras shattered every fantasy people had about princesses.
No one seeing her for the first time could immediately tell what she was supposed to be.
Based on her model and abilities, players had once joked that she was some kind of mutated pig elemental with a built-in earthquake problem.
And yet, despite all that, countless Mages would come back to her again and again for one reason alone.
Blade of Eternal Darkness.
For that weapon, they could overlook a lot.
Three packs of Primordial Behemoths stood between them and Princess, each pack containing two mobs.
This was not level 60 solo-farming. They could not skip them, so everything had to be cleared.
Fortunately, after dealing with the pair before Landslide's cave, everyone already knew how to handle them.
The fights were not difficult, just slow.
In fact, clearing the packs took longer than killing Landslide himself. More than ten minutes later, they finally arrived at the Princess's chamber.
Princess Theradras, perhaps the most frequently farmed boss by Mages in Vanilla WoW, was pacing around her lair.
Maybe she was wondering why no Mage had come to beg for a drop yet.
"Holy crap. That's the Princess?"
Igor's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"She's hideous. Three faces, a bunch of arms, and that body... what even is that?"
Hugo looked slightly nauseated.
"She looks like an angry mountain of meat," Coldhands said.
Gabryell laughed.
"Coldhands, one day you'll be farming her too."
"No way."
"You will," Gabryell said confidently. "Any Mage with ambition eventually ends up here."
All it took was seeing Blade of Eternal Darkness once.
When that happened, dignity became negotiable.
"No chance," Coldhands insisted. "I have standards."
Gabryell chose not to explain.
The day Coldhands saw that dagger drop, he would change his mind and start visiting Princess himself.
"How do we fight her?" Carlos asked, eager to finish quickly and spare everyone's eyes.
Gabryell began assigning roles.
"ServerHeals, put Fear Ward on both tanks and all melee."
Now the value of a Dwarf Priest became obvious.
Fear Ward had a 30-second cooldown and lasted ten minutes. Spending a couple of minutes preparing Fear Wards before the pull would make the Princess fight much easier.
"During the fight, if Fear Ward gets consumed, refresh the tanks first."
The melee DPS could wait.
Keeping Fear Ward active on the tanks was the highest priority.
"Got it," ServerHeals replied. "I'll watch it."
Gabryell still wanted more insurance.
"Desert, put a Soulstone on Carlos."
A level 45 Warrior was simply too fragile against Princess. A Soulstone gave them one more safety net.
"Luna, save Innervate. If ServerHeals runs low, use it on him."
The Dwarf Priest was the key to this fight.
As long as ServerHeals had enough mana, they still had a chance.
"Okay," Lunatori replied.
Gabryell glanced at her character and silently prayed.
Lunatori, don't fail me now.
If Blade of Eternal Darkness drops on the first run, it's going to be because of your insane loot luck!